Highlights of LTTE attrocities idetified in the US Sate Department Human Right Practices 2003 Report

Sri Lanka Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2003
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
February 25, 2004

The LTTE continued to commit serious human rights abuses. The LTTE was responsible for arbitrary arrest, torture, harassment, disappearances, extortion, and detention. Through a campaign of intimidation, the LTTE continued to undermine the work of elected local government bodies in Jaffna and the east. On occasion, the LTTE prevented political and governmental activities from occurring in the north and east. There was overwhelming evidence that the LTTE killed more than 36 members of anti-LTTE Tamil political groups and alleged informants during the year. There were also instances of intimidation of Muslims by the LTTE, and there was fighting between LTTE personnel in the east and Muslims that left several Muslims dead. The LTTE continued to control large sections of the north and east. The LTTE permitted journalists some access to the areas of the country it controlled. Some LTTE-imposed restrictions remained on freedom of movement of citizens. The LTTE denied those under its control the right to change their government, did not provide for fair trials, infringed on privacy rights, used child soldiers, and discriminated against ethnic and religious minorities.

During the year, there was credible evidence that the LTTE killed more than 36 members of anti-LTTE Tamil political groups and alleged Tamil informants for the security forces, mainly in the north and east. Both current and former members of anti-LTTE Tamil political parties were targeted by the LTTE. In one high-profile case, the deputy leader of the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front was shot and killed in Jaffna in June. The LTTE also targeted alleged Tamil informants to the military, killing several during the year. A police officer was also killed in Colombo in an apparent LTTE attack.

The LTTE used torture on a routine basis.

The LTTE in the past detained civilians, often holding them for ransom. There were reports of this practice during the year, particularly the multiple reports of kidnapping of Muslims in the east. Usually, the Muslims were released soon after being kidnapped and often after ransom was paid. At year's end, there were no reports of the LTTE holding Muslims in custody.

There are no legal provisions to allow forced exile, and the Government did not practice it.

In the past in Jaffna, LTTE threats against court officials sometimes disrupted normal court operations. Although the Jaffna court suspended activities due to security concerns in 2000, it reopened in 2001 and functioned continuously since then. During the year, the LTTE expanded the operations of its court system into areas previously under the Government's judicial system in the north and east. With the expansion, the LTTE demanded that all Tamil civilians stop using the Government's judicial system and rely only on the LTTE's legal system. Credible reports indicated that the LTTE implemented the change through the threat of force.

The LTTE has its own self-described legal system, composed of judges with little or no legal training. LTTE courts operate without codified or defined legal authority and essentially operate as agents of the LTTE rather than as an independent judiciary. The courts reportedly imposed severe punishments, including execution.

The LTTE reportedly held a number of political prisoners. The number was impossible to determine because of the secretive nature of the organization. The LTTE refused to allow the ICRC access to these prisoners.

The LTTE routinely invaded the privacy of citizens by maintaining an effective network of informants. The LTTE forcibly recruited children during the year (see Section 6.d.). However, during the year, the LTTE also released 141 children. In late 2002, the LTTE handed over an additional 85 children to UNICEF, stating that the children had volunteered to serve, but that the LTTE did not accept children (see Section 6.d.). Unlike in previous years, there were no reports that the LTTE expelled Muslims from their homes.

The LTTE admitted that in the past it killed security forces personnel rather than take them prisoner. Past eyewitness accounts confirmed that the LTTE executed injured soldiers on the battlefield. At year's end, the LTTE reportedly had released all security force personnel it was holding; however, the LTTE was believed to have killed most of the police officers and security force personnel captured in the past few years.

The LTTE routinely used excessive force in the war, including by targeting civilians. Since the peace process began in December 2001, the LTTE has engaged in kidnapping, hijackings of truck shipments, and forcible recruitment, including of children. The LTTE was widely believed by credible sources to have increased its recruitment during the year. There were intermittent reports of children ranging in age from 13 to 17 escaping from LTTE camps. During the year, the LTTE released 141 children. (see Sections 1.f. and 5.). The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) received approximately 200 complaints about child abductions during the year, and credible sources said those children were recruited to be child soldiers. Senior LTTE officials alleged to foreign officials that child soldiers were volunteers. During the year, the LTTE and UNICEF reached an agreement on the demobilization and rehabilitation of child soldiers and began work on an action plan to address issues relating to child labor, including underage recruitment. However, the LTTE provided little follow-up to the plan.

The LTTE expropriated food, fuel, and other items meant for IDPs, thus exacerbating the plight of such persons in LTTE-controlled areas. Malnutrition remained a problem in LTTE-controlled areas, as well as in other parts of the Vanni region, with nutrition levels falling below the national average. Experts reported a high rate of anemia and a low birth rate. Confirmed cases of malnutrition included hundreds of children.

Unlike in the previous year, travel by local and foreign journalists to conflict areas was not restricted. The LTTE did not tolerate freedom of expression. It tightly restricted the print and broadcast media in areas under its control. According to RWB, 50 armed LTTE activists near the eastern town of Batticaloa August 7 ambushed a distribution truck of Thinamurasu, a Tamil-language weekly, and burned 5,000 copies of the newspaper. In the past, the LTTE killed those reporting and publishing on human rights.

The LTTE restricted academic freedom, and it repressed and killed intellectuals who criticize its actions. The LTTE also severely repressed members of human rights organizations, such as the University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR) and other groups. Many former members of the UTHR have been killed and others were in hiding.

The LTTE does not allow freedom of association in the areas it controls. The LTTE reportedly used coercion to make persons attend its rallies. On the Jaffna Peninsula, the LTTE occasionally posted publicly the names of Tamil civilians accused of associating with security forces and other Government entities. The Jaffna Library, destroyed during the war, was reconstructed and was set to reopen during the year, but the LTTE prevented the reopening. The LTTE killed Tamil civilians who cooperated with the security forces in establishing a civil administration in Jaffna under a political leadership elected freely and fairly in 1998.

The LTTE expelled virtually the entire Muslim population from their homes in the northern part of the island in 1990. Most of these persons remain displaced. During the year, the LTTE leadership met with the leaders of the Muslim community to discuss the peace process. In the past, the LTTE expropriated Muslim homes, land, and businesses and threatened Muslim families with death if they attempted to return. The LTTE made some conciliatory statements to the Muslim community, but most Muslims viewed the statements with skepticism. There also was intimidation of Muslims in the east by the LTTE, and, throughout the year, there was sporadic fighting between LTTE personnel and Muslims. For example, on April 17-18, five Muslims were killed and scores displaced during fighting with the LTTE in Mutur, near the eastern port city of Trincomalee. In August, five Muslims were killed, and numerous Muslim-owned businesses and houses were burned during fighting in the Eastern Province.

The LTTE has been accused in the past of using church and temple compounds, where civilians were instructed by the Government to congregate in the event of hostilities, as shields for the storage of munitions.

The LTTE has discriminated against Muslims and, in 1990, expelled some 46,000 Muslim inhabitants--virtually the entire Muslim population--from their homes in areas under LTTE control in the northern part of the island. Most of these persons remained displaced and lived in or near welfare centers. There were credible reports that the LTTE warned thousands of Muslims displaced from the Mannar area not to return to their homes until the conflict is over. However, it appeared that these attacks by the LTTE were not targeted against persons due to their religious beliefs; rather, it appeared that they were part of an overall strategy to clear the north and east of persons not sympathetic to the cause of an independent Tamil state. During the year, the LTTE invited the Muslim IDPs to return home, asserting they would not be harmed. Although some Muslim IDPs had begun returning home, the vast majority had not returned. Instead, they were awaiting a guarantee from the Government for their safety in LTTE-controlled areas.

The LTTE occasionally disrupted the flow of persons exiting the Vanni region through the two established checkpoints. In particular, the LTTE taxed civilians traveling through areas it controled. In the past, the LTTE disrupted the movement of IDPs from Trincomalee to Jaffna by hijacking or attacking civilian shipping, although there were no such reports during the year.

The LTTE continued to refuse to allow elections in areas under its control, although it did not oppose campaigning by certain Tamil parties in the east during the December 2001 parliamentary elections. In previous years, the LTTE effectively had undermined the functioning of local government bodies in Jaffna through a campaign of killing and intimidation. This campaign included the killing of two of Jaffna's mayors and death threats against members of the 17 local councils. During the period of the conflict, the LTTE killed popularly elected politicians, including those elected by Tamils in areas the LTTE claimed as part of a Tamil homeland.

The LTTE used child soldiers and recruits children, sometimes forcibly, for use in battlefield support functions and in combat. LTTE recruits, some as young as 13 years of age, surrendered to the military, and credible reports indicated that the LTTE stepped up recruiting efforts (see Section 1.g.). In 1998, the LTTE gave assurances to the Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary General for Children in Armed Combat that it would not recruit children under the age of 17. The LTTE did not honor this pledge, and, even after the ceasefire agreement, there were multiple credible reports of the LTTE forcibly recruiting children (see Section 6.d.). For example, during the year, UNICEF reported that there were over 700 cases of forcible child recruitment by the LTTE and that more than 1,300 children remained in LTTE custody at year's end. During the year, the Government began participation in an inter-regional project aimed to prevent and reintegrate children involved in armed conflict. The project was sponsored by the International Labor Organizations's International Program for the Elimination of Child Labor, which the Government began working with in 1996.

Read the full report

Mar 1, 2004.

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