Fury at detentions under SL anti-terror rules

Boossa (Sri Lanka), Feb 21: Huddled outside a detention camp in Sri Lanka's far south, relatives of civilians held for months without charge say lives are being ruined by emergency regulations amid renewed civil war.

Some with babes in arms, others carrying a few packets of biscuits for a detained husband or brother, they swelter in the burning sun. Most have travelled all night to see loved ones imprisoned for suspected links to Tamil Tiger rebels.

But months pass and still no charges are brought, and relatives and rights groups are up in arms.

''They still haven't charged my brother!'' said one woman, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid any retribution, after a weekend visit to Boossa detention camp a few kilometres from the island's historic southern port town of Galle.

''If they have any charges, then produce him in court!,'' she added. ''I am so angry that my brother was taken into custody without any charge. If I had a chance, I would kill them!'' Others clustered at a registration desk nearby echo her complaint -- but are afraid to speak out -- and have asked the island's human rights commission to investigate.

Behind them, heavily armed guards man watch towers and sentry points behind green sandbag bunkers and coils of rusty razor wire that ring Boossa camp, where hardline Marxists were held during a 1980s uprising.

Sri Lanka's Human Rights Commission says it has received 433 complaints of detentions and arrests in the past year, though not all related to emergency regulations that give security forces extensive powers to detain suspects for months at a time without formal charges being filed.

Some detainees released after a recent round-up complain they were taken away simply because they were Tamil in the island's south dominated by majority Sinhalese.

Human Rights Trampled?

Security forces have detained hundreds of people, many of them Tamils, during security sweeps amid a new chapter in a two decade civil war that has killed more than 67,000 people since 1983 and which analysts expect to escalate.

Many have been released days or weeks later without charge. But others remain in custody, and rights lawyers say there is a culture of impunity that gives the military and police free rein to detain whoever they want without having to justify on what suspicion.

Sri Lanka's Terrorist Investigation Division says it has no choice but to hold people without charge under emergency regulations imposed after the assassination of the island's foreign minister in 2005 and tightened up after an abortive attack on President Mahinda Rajapakse's brother last year.

It is currently holding around 100 people at Boossa camp -- 70 percent of them minority Tamils.

''Everyone is produced before the courts. According to the emergency regulations, we have the right to keep them in custody for the purposes of investigation,'' a top Terrorist Investigation Division official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

''People have to understand, a terrorist investigation cannot be completed in under 24 hours,'' he added.

''No-one will be kept without any reason...We keep detainees here at Boossa for their benefit, to give them more facilities on humanitarian and rights grounds.''

More Rights in Guatanamo?

Detentions have surged in recent months in the wake of a series of deadly ambushes and attacks on security forces by suspected Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who want to carve out an independent state in the island's northeast.

But many minority Tamils shun the Tigers' violent methods of ambushes and suicide bombings, and some say they are being unfairly singled out.

Visitors say their relatives have not been abused at Boossa and that the conditions are better than small police cells where they were held previously. But that does not calm their underlying anger with the system.

''This is a short-cut for the security forces or the police for them to arrest them and keep them under detention. It's against the tenets of human rights,'' said K S Ratnavale, a lawyer who handles detainee cases and is director of rights group the Centre for Human Rights and Development.

''I think detainees in Guantanamo are better off, because there, there are legal methods to challenge it. But here, there are legal defence mechanisms in place but only in name.'' Alarmed at a spate of abductions and disappearances which President Mahinda Rajapakse's government and the Tigers blame on each other, Amnesty International has appealed to the foes to respect international law.

Britain has even warned it could withhold aid if it determines rights are abused.

''The human rights situation has deteriorated in Sri Lanka since November 2005, that's quite clear,'' said Yolanda Foster, Amnesty's researcher for Sri Lanka. ''What Amnesty is calling for is for both parties to the conflict to make sure they follow due process of law.'' ''We would be lobbying the Sri Lankan government to follow norms under international law and either file charges against people in custody or release them on bail.''

Reuters

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