AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

MEDIA ADVISORY

ASA 37/004/2012

8 March 2012

New r eport expose s ongoing illegal detention in Sri Lanka

On Tuesday 13 March, at a press conference in Geneva, Amnesty International will launch a report exposing how hundreds of people languish in detention without trial in Sri Lanka despite the end of the country’s long conflict.

Locked away: Sri Lanka’s security detainees reveals how the arbitrary and illegal detention that were a hallmark of Sri Lanka’s security regime during its long war has become routine. Detainees are vulnerable to torture, extrajudicial execution and are often held incommunicado.

Sri Lankan authorities detain those deemed to be security threats, and, sometimes, their families and colleagues. Peaceful critics have also been arrested and detained. Authorities continue to justify these practices in the name of public security.

Despite the end of the armed conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, in Sri Lanka human rights abuses of all types go un-investigated and unpunished

The UN Human Rights Council is currently meeting in Geneva, and Sri Lanka is on the agenda.

Amnesty International is calling on the UN to support an independent international investigation into allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka.

Copies of the report are available under embargo

Amnesty International experts are available for interview

Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director will introduce the report at the press conference in Geneva on 13 March.

For more information please co ntact press officer Katya Nasim:

katya.nasim@amnesty.org + 44 207 413 5871 / + 44 7904 398 103

Public Document

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For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566 or email: press@amnesty.org

International Secretariat, Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW, UK