Amnesty claims ‘preposterous’-SL

13 March 2012 01:20 pm

While rejecting the latest allegations of arbitrary, illegal detention in Sri Lanka, and extrajudicial execution made by Amnesty International (AI), Minister of Justice Rauff Hakeem said that the claims are made to tarnish the image of Sri Lanka internationally at this ‘crucial juncture’.

In a new report titled “Locked away: Sri Lanka’s security detainees,” AI has claimed that “arbitrary and illegal detention and enforced disappearances remain routine in Sri Lanka, where human rights abuses are not investigated nor punished”.

 Minister Hakeem who was a part of the Sri Lankan delegation to Geneva said that the claims made by AI are “preposterous and highly exaggerated”.  “We have clearly documented the number of people in detention as well as in legal custody. Amnesty International is making a highly exaggerated and preposterous claim without realizing that every individual in detention has clearly been accounted for.  Those who are detained are detained under the existing Prevention of Terrorism Act or under legal custody. Since the removal of the state of emergency those who are under detention fall only into the above two categories” he said.

Hakeem went on to state that an organization such as Amnesty International should not make such sweeping statements with no valid proof. “ if they have any issue they should have brought it to us. We are willing to talk to them and be accounted for but instead they are motivated by a political agenda. This is done to cast aspirations against Sri Lanka at a time when there is a resolution pending at UNHRC sponsored by the US in Geneva. Reports of this would help create the necessary impasse for them at this juncture. We condemn and reject this report” he said. ( Hafeel Farisz)