Lanka needs more foreign monitors: Rights group

New York, Aug 5: More international monitors are needed in Sri Lanka, a US rights group said today, after Denmark, Finland and Sweden withdrew from a truce observation mission as the island nation slides back toward civil war.

More than 800 people have been killed so far this year in escalating attacks and military clashes between the army and the Tamil Tigers, who are furious at President Mahinda Rajapakse's outright rejection of their demand for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils in the country's north and east.

The fighting is the most intense and prolonged since a 2002 truce and diplomats and some military personnel say the civil war that began in 1983 appears to have resumed in all but name.

''With the dramatic increase in violence in Sri Lanka, more international monitors are needed, not fewer,'' said Brad Adams, Asia Director at Human Rights Watch. ''The lives of countless civilians are at risk at this critical time.'' Denmark, Finland and Sweden withdrew from Sri Lanka when the Tigers demanded monitors from European Union nations quit the island by September 1 after the bloc listed them as a terrorist organization alongside the likes of al Qaeda.

''By withdrawing their monitors, Denmark, Finland and Sweden will deal a devastating blow to the protection of civilians in Sri Lanka,'' said Adams. ''Concerned governments must take urgent steps to get more international monitors on the ground.'' Thousands of civilians fled Sri Lanka's eastern battle zone by tractor and on foot on Friday as shells fell during an artillery battle between Tamil Tiger rebels and the army, survivors said.

Human Rights Watch called for the creation of a strong and widely deployed international human rights monitoring presence, with observers based in Sri Lanka's north and east, Colombo and other areas of heightened political violence.

Reuters

Related Stories