Colombo, Feb 14 (PTI) Eight international organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have condemned the Sri Lankan government’s response to a prominent activist’s testimony before the European Parliament about the human rights situation in the country, terming it an act of “harassment and intimidation”.<\/p>\n
The Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry on February 4 described as misleading and denounced the testimony given by Ambika Satkunanathan, a human rights lawyer and activist, to the European Parliament on January 27.<\/p>\n
Satkunanathan had made a critical assessment of the human rights situation in Sri Lanka and its international and national obligations to its citizens, besides providing recommendations to European Union member states.<\/p>\n
The government statement clearly constitutes an act of harassment and intimidation. We condemn the Sri Lankan government’s tactics to intimidate human rights defenders, and express our full solidarity with Satkunanathan, a well-known, respected, and courageous human rights defender, said the joint statement from the collective which included Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.<\/p>\n
Targeting her for providing accurate testimony about the human rights situation in Sri Lanka to the European Parliament is completely unacceptable, and sends a chilling message to all Sri Lankan civil society, especially those in the north and east, who are already operating under considerable duress under the current administration, it said.<\/p>\n
The joint statement from the eight organisations said the government’s response mirrors its repeated practice of falsely equating human rights defenders and human rights advocacy with those pursuing terrorism.<\/p>\n
The statement’s language aligns these baseless allegations with vague and frequently abused provisions under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), exposing Satkunanathan to a heightened risk of threats, attacks, and persecution, it said.<\/p>\n
We support Ms. Satkunanathan’s testimony to the European Parliament, which accurately described a situation already reported by the United Nations and many domestic and international human rights organisations, it said.<\/p>\n
The Foreign Ministry’s statement contains numerous false claims in an attempt to disparage and delegitimise a distinguished human rights advocate, placing her at risk of physical danger in retribution for her brave work, it said.<\/p>\n
The government’s claim that her testimony was reminiscent of LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] propaganda that once stoked hatred among communities, and that such allegations need to be refuted in the interest of social harmony is particularly insidious and dangerous, it added.<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka has been marred by over three-decade-long brutal civil war that ended with the death of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) chief Velupillai Prabhakaran in the coastal village of Mullaittivu in 2009.<\/p>\n
The UN believes 80,000-100,000 people died in the conflict when the rebels sought to carve out a separate state for the Tamil minority and accused both sides of war crimes.<\/p>\n
The UNHRC has passed a resolution censuring Colombo over its treatment of minorities and alleged failure to investigate atrocities during the civil war.<\/p>\n
According to government figures, over 20,000 people are missing due to various conflicts. The Tamils allege that thousands were massacred during the final stages of the war.<\/p>\n
The Sri Lankan Army denies the charge, claiming it was a humanitarian operation to rid the Tamils of LTTE’s control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Colombo, Feb 14 (PTI) Eight international organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have condemned the Sri Lankan government’s response to a prominent activist’s testimony before the European Parliament about the human rights situation in the country, terming it an act of “harassment and intimidation”. The Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry on February 4 described […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-184260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}