New York-based Human Rights Watch has commented on Sri Lanka in an extremely adverse manner in its Annual Report released on Monday, an AP report here said.
Its deputy Asia Director Elaine Pearson has said, ‘Until wartime abuses are prosecuted, minority grievances are addressed and repression against the press and civil society ends, only the President and his family members in power have reason to feel secure in Sri Lanka'.
The Report went on to accuse the Sri Lanka government of intimidating the press and said it was unlikely to respect human rights anytime soon.
In defeating Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009, between 80, 000 and 100,000 people were killed. More than 7,000 civilians died in the last 5 months of the war, according to United Nations documents, the Report has pointed out.
The Report added that after the end of the conflict, human rights groups had repeatedly called for an investigation. There were allegations that the government's armed forces shelled civilians and hospitals, blocked the delivery of food and medical provisions and deliberately understated the number of civilians trapped in the war zone.
The government had repressed the media, civil leaders and the Opposition. The press was reluctant to publish articles critical of President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government.
‘Sri Lanka's aggressive rejection of accountability for war crimes is an affront to the victims of the country's long civil war', the Report added.
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