HRW denounces Sri Lankan government for arbitrarily detaining activists

Aug. 3 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The NGO Human Right Watch (HRW) denounced on Tuesday that the Sri Lankan government would be using the state of emergency to harass and arbitrarily detain activists seeking accountability for the country’s economic crisis and calling for policy reform.

The organization has assured that, since Ranil Wickremesinghe took office as president on July 21, the Police and the Army have tried to reduce the protests through intimidation, surveillance and arbitrary arrests of protesters, activity, journalists and civil society agents.

“The Sri Lankan government’s crackdown on peaceful dissent appears to be a misguided and illegal attempt to divert attention from the need to address the country’s urgent economic crisis,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at HRW. .

“Sri Lanka’s international partners must be clear that they need to work with a rights-respecting administration to address Sri Lanka’s deep-seated economic problems,” Ganguly said in a statement issued by the NGO.

The organization cites as an example the incursion that the Sri Lankan security forces carried out on July 22 in the main protest camp in Colombo, leaving more than 50 people injured, including four journalists and several other foreign diplomats.

Another case took place on July 26, when authorities arrested another protester, Dhaniz Ali, from an international flight about to depart from Colombo. On July 27, unidentified men in plain clothes kidnapped a former activist who had also participated in the protests, Veranga Pushpika, according to HRW.

On the other hand, the organization has denounced that the Police tried to prevent the defense lawyers of the detainees from meeting with four protesters who had been arrested after having handed over to the agents a large sum of money stolen from the official residence of the president, which was occupied by protesters.

All of these arbitrary arrests have prompted lawyers and media organizations to express their concern to HRW after noticing an increase in intimidation, including threats of violence and surveillance.

Under the state of emergency declared by Wickremesinghe on July 18, the period a person can be detained before being brought before a magistrate has been increased from 24 to 72 hours.

In this way, the authorities have been given extensive additional powers to search and arrest, and the Armed Forces have been authorized to detain people for up to a day without disclosing their detention.

“The people of Sri Lanka are reeling under an economic crisis that has plunged millions into food insecurity, school closures and shortages of medicine, fuel and other necessities,” said Ganguly, who has called for respect for international law. .

“The government must end its repressive policies and practices and act urgently to address people’s basic needs, earn public trust and uphold the rule of law by holding those responsible to account,” he added.