This paper updates AI’s concerns in Sri Lanka as outlined in the circular “Sri Lanka: Extrajudicial executions, “disappearances” and torture, 1987 – 1990″ (ASA 37/21/90). Although reports of extrajudicial executions and “disappearances” diminished after March 1990, they did not cease, and intimidation and death threats by government forces continued. In the northeast, heavy fighting broke out in June between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and government forces, after the LTTE captured and killed an unconfirmed number of policemen. Reports have been received of hundreds of extrajudicial killings and “disappearances” of civilians, apparantly committed by government forces in reprisal for the LTTE actions.
