Colombo: Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has accused the Government of Sri Lanka of routinely torturing its detainees and not credibly investigating such allegations when they are made.
Sri Lanka has legislation against torture, but no effective way to implement it, the Herald Sun quoted Yolanda Foster, the rights group`s Sri Lanka expert, as saying today. Amnesty International issued a report on Sri Lanka ahead of a review by the UN Committee Against Torture tomorrow.
"There is no longer an independently functioning unit investigating torture allegations levelled against the security forces, which calls into question Sri Lanka`s commitment to ending this abhorrent practice," Foster said.
The rights group accuses police, military personnel, paramilitary forces and prison guards of routinely beating and torturing detainees. It said that during the first 14 years of the anti-torture legislation, only three prosecutions were reportedly made under the police Special Investigation Unit, which has since been sidelined.
Amnesty International said that in 2008, the government claimed 42 indictments against 90 people stemming from torture investigations in the prior four years. But the group said most of those cases never went to trial. ANI