ICRC accuses Sri Lanka of manipulating rights data

The International Red Cross on Wednesday angrily accused Sri Lanka’s government of releasing confidential communications and manipulating information from the organisation to defend its rights record.

In rare public criticism of a government, the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Colombo has been “misrepresenting its findings” to stave off allegations it was behind abductions and disappearances. The row surrounds Sri Lanka’s use of a confidential report by the ICRC, which did not give a figure for disappearances on the war-torn island, to dispute ongoing allegations that hundreds of people had gone missing on the island.

The ICRC, known for its strict rules of confidentiality and neutrality, said it “deplores” Sri Lanka’s “publication and sharing of confidential reports submitted exclusively to the Sri Lankan authorities.” Turning the tables on the Sri Lankan government, the organisation also said extra-judicial killings and disappearances were part of a pattern of abuses in Sri Lanka that need to be stopped.

“The ICRC strives to bring this about through its confidential and direct dialogue with the authorities concerned. For this reason, we prefer not to enter into a public debate on the number of disappeared in Sri Lanka,” said Jacques de Malo, ICRC’s head of operations in South Asia. Colombo has come under fire for its rights record, with Human Rights Watch saying recently that at least 1,500 people “disappeared” between 2006 and 2007 - mostly ethnic Tamils living in the island’s restive north and east.

The European Union has told Sri Lanka it has “very serious concerns” about civil war human rights abuses and that lucrative trade concessions could be at risk if they continue. “The EU continues to harbour very serious concerns about continuing reports of human rights abuses,” senior officials said in a statement issued late on Tuesday after a three-day visit to Sri Lanka to discuss concerns.

The so-called EU Troika, representing current president Slovenia, incoming president France and the European Commission, also told the government to get serious about prosecuting abuses through the courts and allowing independent monitoring.

Source: dailytimes.com.pk