{"id":40273,"date":"2012-05-01T10:34:51","date_gmt":"2012-05-01T10:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=40273"},"modified":"2012-05-01T10:34:51","modified_gmt":"2012-05-01T10:34:51","slug":"sri-lanka-australia-should-raise-torture-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lanka-australia-should-raise-torture-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka: Australia Should Raise Torture Concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>(Melbourne) \u2013 Australia\u2019s immigration minister should raise concerns with Sri Lankan officials about alleged arbitrary arrest and torture of people who were refused asylum and sent back to Sri Lanka when he visits\u00a0this week, the Human Rights Law Centre and Human Rights Watch said today.
\nImmigration Minister Chris Bowen is scheduled to visit\u00a0Sri Lanka\u00a0from May 2 to 4, 2012, to discuss migration issues, including preventing people smuggling from Sri Lanka to Australia. Bowen has said, \u201cAustralia\u00a0will continue working closely with\u00a0Sri Lanka\u00a0on issues relating to people smuggling, including preventing and disrupting people smuggling ventures by air and sea.\u201d\u00a0The Human Rights Law Centre and Human Rights Watch called on Bowen and all senior Australian officials to ensure that respect for human rights and accountability for human rights violations are central to all discussions with their Sri Lankan counterparts.<\/p>\n

\u201cRejected asylum seekers returned to Sri Lanka have been subject to arbitrary detention, torture, and other serious human rights abuses,\u201d said Phil Lynch, executive director\u00a0of the Human Rights Law Centre. \u201cEfforts to counter and prevent people-smuggling should seek to protect asylum seekers, and shouldn\u2019t interfere with their right to seek asylum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australia cooperates closely with Sri Lanka on addressing people-smuggling. The Sri Lankan Department of Immigration and Emigration receives Australian aid, and Australia\u2019s last federal budget included almost AU$11 million to deploy Australian federal police officers to Sri Lanka and other countries to \u201ccombat people smuggling.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Human Rights Law Centre and Human Rights Watch urged both governments to make certain that they do not undermine legal protections for asylum seekers in their efforts to counter people-smuggling. Human Rights Watch has\u00a0documented<\/a>\u00a0at least eight cases in which people who had unsuccessfully sought asylum in the UK were returned to\u00a0Sri Lanka\u00a0and endured serious human rights abuses, including torture and rape. Some said they were beaten with batons and burned with cigarettes.<\/p>\n

The Edmund Rice Center in Australia similarly documented in May 2010 that asylum seekers returned to Sri Lanka were handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department, the Sri Lankan police, and taken into custody. Some have been detained and assaulted.<\/p>\n

In March an Australian citizen,\u00a0Premakumar Gunaratnam, who was trying to form a political party in Sri Lanka, alleged that he was picked up and tortured in custody. Sri Lankan authorities subsequently deported him to Australia.<\/p>\n

The United Nations Committee against Torture found in November 2011 that torture and ill-treatment in Sri Lanka are \u201cwidespread and persistent.\u201d It stated that, \u201c[The] continued and consistent allegations of widespread use of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of suspects in police custody, especially to extract confessions or information to be used in criminal proceedings. The Committee is further concerned at reports that suggest that torture and ill-treatment perpetrated by state actors, both the military and the police, have continued in many parts of the country after the conflict ended in May 2009 and is still occurring in 2011.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia\u00a0should ensure that human rights concerns and safeguards are paramount in any security, intelligence, and migration cooperation with\u00a0Sri Lanka,\u201d said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cAustralia\u00a0is prohibited under the Refugees Convention and international human rights law from sending anyone to a country where they face torture and ill-treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Immigration Minister Bowen should also raise Australia\u2019s broader concerns about the human rights situation in Sri Lanka during his visit, the organizations said. Specifically he should ask what the Sri Lankan government is doing to investigate and prosecute alleged war crimes during Sri Lanka\u2019s 26-year-long conflict, which ended three years ago.<\/p>\n

In March the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on Sri Lanka showing strong international support for accountability for abuses committed by all sides to the conflict.\u00a0The resolution calls upon the Sri Lankan government to fulfill its legal obligations toward justice and accountability, to expeditiously provide a comprehensive action plan to carry out the recommendations of its Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, and to address alleged violations of international law. It also encourages the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and other UN human rights envoys to assist Sri Lanka in implementing these steps.<\/p>\n

\u201cBowen should make it crystal clear though public and private statements that Australia supports international efforts at accountability, and that Sri Lanka has failed to deliver,\u201d Lynch said. \u201cIn particular, Bowen should ask what efforts have been made to implement the UN Human Rights Council resolution to ensure justice for the numerous atrocities that occurred during the conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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