Police and security forces in Sri Lanka 'continued to torture' detainees in custody says AI

The government continued to subject people to torture and enforced disappearances, the watchdog said in its annual report.

"Enforced disappearances and abductions for ransom carried out by members of the security forces are reported in many parts of the country," the report said.

On Thursday, the UN said Iniya Bharati, an advisor to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, is running a faction of the TMVP paramilitary group that still forcefully recruits children.

Child recruitment

In a statement to BBC, Iniya Bharati has denied the accusation.

Enforced disappearances and abductions for ransom carried out by members of the security forces are reported in many parts of the country AI report

"Police and army personnel continued to torture or otherwise ill-treat detainees. Some people died in custody after being tortured by police," the AI said.

It added that police killings of suspects or killings in apparent "escape attempts" continued to be reported from Sri Lanka.

The AI report is also highly critical of the government's treatment of former Tamil Tiger combatants.

Describing the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) as an "ad-hoc" measure, the London based watchdog says the panel is not empowered to investigate accountability issues on human rights violations.

'Ad-hoc' LLRC

Noting its shortcomings in mandate, the AI, Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group earlier rejected an invitation to testify before the LLRC.

	AI said theLLRC does not have a mandate to investigate accountability issues

The annual report accuses the Sri Lanka authorities of not properly addressing the issue of Internally displaced Tamil People (IDP) despite the fact that only 20,000 IDPs currently remain in the camps out of 300,000.

"Many Tamils who left the camps still lived in unsettled conditions and continued to depend on food aid. Tens of thousands remained with host families and some 1,400 remained at transit sites," it said.

The UN report on Children in conflict stated allegations of sexual violence across the four districts in the north (Killinochchi, Mullativu, Vavuniya and Mannar) among the displaced communities.

"Women and girls have reported lack of safety owing to the presence of members of the Sri Lankan Army or local officials, some of whom have been reported to have returned to the communities at night wearing civilian clothes and requesting sexual favours" says the report compiled by Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy.