Human rights group calls on Govt. to safeguard Tamil Tiger suspects
Thursday, 29 May 2014 00:00
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A human rights watchdog has called on the Sri Lankan Government to ensure the safety of three Tamil Tigers extradited from Malaysia this week in a statement released yesterday.
The three suspects were brought to Sri Lanka on Monday night by officials of the Terrorist Investigation Department.
Malaysian Police arrested the three foreign men suspected to be members of the Sri Lankan Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) terrorist group in Selangor, Malaysia. All three of the men were carrying refugee cards issued by the United Nations refugee agency UNHRC.
The UNHRC had recognised two as refugees and was in the process of determining the claim of the third for refugee status, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
Although Malaysia is not party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, customary international refugee law and international human rights law require it to respect the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits countries from sending anyone back to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened or where they would face a real risk of torture or other ill-treatment, it added.
“Sri Lanka’s treatment of these three men who have been forcibly returned by Malaysia is now in the international spotlight,” said Phil Robertson, Deputy Asia Director. “Malaysia should now do all it can to stop further abuses for which it might be complicit.”
Since the end of a three-decade war with the LTTE in 2009 the Sri Lankan Government has been working hard to crack down on remnants in other countries.
Earlier this year the Sri Lankan Army killed a LTTE operative and two others who authorities said were attempting to revive the LTTE in the northern part of the island.
On 1 April the Sri Lankan Government also controversially banned 26 international organisations they claim have links to the LTTE.
