Sri Lanka Mirror

Monday, 12 December 2011 11:06

(Srilankamirror) – Local election monitor CaFFE has expressed shock and concern over the disappearance of Movement for People’s Struggle members Lalith Kumar Weeraraju and Kugan Murugan.

In a statement, CaFFE says they went missing while organizing a Human Rights Day protest in Jaffna, a town with a strong security presence.

It notes that Lalith Kumar Weeraraju has been giving leadership to a political movement in Jaffna and also appeared on behalf of the missing and detained persons.

Pointing out that he was the victim of threats on several occasions by unidentified persons who wanted him out of politics, CaFFE urges an immediate investigation into their disappearance.

Meanwhile, the Asian Human Rights Council says that in recent months there have several disappearances in different parts of the country.

In one instance the body of a person named Mohammed Niyas, a caretaker of a local temple, was found several weeks after his disappearance, an AHRC statement says.

The local human rights organisations have called for an immediate inquiry into these disappearances and to find the whereabouts of the two persons. The government has not responded to these calls.

The Sri Lankan government has refused to make forced disappearances a crime punishable in the country. It has also refused to sign the UN Convention against Forced Disappearances. At the 47th Session of the Committee against Torture the Committee made the following recommendations regarding Sri Lanka in their concluding observations:

    The state party should:

    (a) Take all the necessary measures to ensure that enforced disappearance is established as an offence in its domestic law;

    (b) Ensure that the cases of enforced disappearances are thoroughly and effectively investigated, that suspects are prosecuted and those found guilty punished with sanctions proportionate to the gravity of their crimes;

    (c) Ensure that the any individual who has suffered harm as the direct result of an enforced disappearance has access to information about the fate of the disappeared person, as well as to fair and adequate compensation;

    (d) Adopt measures to clarify the outstanding cases of enforced disappearances and comply with the request to visit by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (A/HRC/16/48, para. 450).

     The Committee furthermore calls upon the State party to consider ratifying the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances.

The Asian Human Rights Commission urges the Sri Lankan government to inquire into the disappearances of Lalith Kumar Weeraju and Kugan Murugan and to save their lives.