Sri Lanka faces the threat of violence if it continues to ignore international concerns over attacks on the rule of law, human rights abuses and a lack of post-war reconciliation, the International Crisis Group (ICG) says in a report on the eve of a three-day meeting of Commonwealth nations which will be hosted by the Indian Ocean island state.
NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Sri Lanka faces the threat of violence if it continues to ignore international concerns over attacks on the rule of law, human rights abuses and a lack of post-war reconciliation, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report on Thursday.
Despite recent moves to show progress, the London-based think tank said the government in Colombo had not altered the "authoritarian direction" of its policies, and the rights and security of all communities remained under threat.
"The government’s policies badly damage rule of law and democracy, undermine the rights of Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese alike and render all citizens insecure," said Alan Keenan, Sri Lanka project director.
"If it continues to close avenues of peaceful change, the risks of violent reaction will grow."
The ICG report comes on the eve of a three-day meeting of Commonwealth nations which will be hosted by the Indian Ocean island state. There has been intense lobbying by human rights organisations who have called for a boycott of the summit.
Canada, Britain and Mauritius's prime ministers have pulled out due to concerns over on-going human rights abuses and the failure of the government to try those responsible for war crimes during the country's nearly 30-year-long civil conflict which ended in May 2009.
As many as 40,000 civilians were killed in the last months of the conflict, as government troops advanced on the last stronghold of the Tamil rebels fighting for an independent homeland, a U.N. panel said in 2011.
The U.N. Human Rights Council has urged Sri Lanka to allow an independent body to investigate the alleged war crimes.
Colombo has rejected the allegations of rights abuses and resisted pressure to allow an independent commission, saying a range of recommendations made by its own reconciliation body are being implemented.
"If anyone wants to complain about the human rights violations in Sri Lanka, whether it is torture, whether it is rape ... we have a system," President Mahinda Rajapaksa told a news conference on Thursday.
"If there (are) any violations, we will take action against anyone. So we are open. We have nothing to hide."
MINORITY ATTACKS
The ICG report entitled "Sri Lanka's Potemkin Peace: Democracy under Fire" said while polls held in September in the heavily militarised Northern Province resulted in a landslide victory for the main opposition Tamil National Alliance, Rajapaksa has been reluctant to allow devolution to begin.
"For the election to be a meaningful step toward resolving the ethnic conflict, Colombo would have to abandon its hostility to devolution and reverse its policy of militarisation, centralised control and creeping Sinhalisation of the north," said the report.
But the group said it was not just minority Tamils in the north who were being subjected to increasing authoritarian rule, but that "social and communal pressures" existed elsewhere too. Journalists, activists and critics of the government, it said, were being threatened and censored.
The ICG accused Rajapaksa's government of supporting militant Buddhist attacks on mosques, as well as Muslim businesses and cultural practices over the last two years.
Violence against Christian churches and worshippers also appears to be on the rise in 2013, with no serious government efforts to prevent or punish attacks, it added.
"Participants should use the November 2013 meeting of Commonwealth leaders in Colombo to press the Sri Lankan government to address human rights abuses, prevent attacks on religious minorities and restore the independence of the judiciary," said the report.
"Leaders should also publicly insist on a credible process of accountability for end-of-war events and a political solution built on deepened devolution of power within a united Sri Lanka."
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