Sri Lanka’s defence secretary hits back at HRW over threatening Tamil families of disappeared

28 February 2020

Sri Lanka’s defence secretary hit back at Human Rights Watch (HRW) last week, denying reports that the security forces had been threatening Tamil families of the disappeared, and claimed these were part of efforts to “discredit” Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council.

HRW reported that Sri Lankan security Forces, as well as intelligence agencies, have “intensified surveillance and threats" against the families of the disappeared and activists, since the election of Gotabaya Rajapaksa as president in November 2019. One activist in the North-East told the human rights organisation that prior to a recent victims’ meeting, “every one of the mothers got at least six telephone calls from different intelligence agencies asking, ‘Where is the meeting?’ ‘Who is organizing the meeting?’ ‘What is being said?’”.

Kamal Gunaratne, who is accused of conducting war crimes, hit back at the reports, with Sri Lanka’s defence ministry claiming that there was a “routine security network” in place.

“They are not focusing any of those relatives of missing persons and we have not used any of the intelligence segments of the armed forces or the police to keep a tab on those families,” added Gunaratne. “Especially, we do not keep an eye on the relatives of missing persons or intimidate them.”

The defence secretary went on to claim that the Human Rights Watch report “might be leveled against the country’s Security Forces to discredit the Government targeting the Geneva UN Human Rights sessions”.

His statement comes as the Sri Lankan government announced it would be withdrawing its co-sponsorship of a UN resolution in Geneva this week, which mandated a hybrid accountability mechanism to prosecute for mass atrocities. The UN human rights chief urged member states to “explore all possible avenues for advancing accountability” in response.

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17 February 2020 : 'Intensified surveillance and threats' against families of disappeared says Human Rights Watch