the deportation from the u.k. of sri lankan national vinayagamoorthi muralitharan, known as karuna, who is alleged to have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka is, to say the least, disappointing...he was deported following his conviction on immigration charges...the deportation of karuna now means that the investigation by the u.k. authorities into these allegations has come to an end...karuna is entitled to be presumed innocent, until and unless guilt can be proved beyond reasonable doubt in a fair trial...people will continue writing to the authorities of sri lanka to ask for an investigation to be started there into these allegations...
there is additional concern that the investigation collapsed because the u.k. government did not dedicate the necessary resources to it and did not sufficiently reassure the victims or their relatives of their safety under a witness protection program...
a number of non-governmental organizations had presented information to the metropolitan police (london's police force) relating to grave allegations of human rights abuses committed by karuna...these included statements by victims and witnesses, and names of witnesses who were prepared to provide relevant details about karuna’s alleged responsibility for or involvement in ri lanka in incidents of torture, hostage-taking, and the recruitment and use of children as soldiers in combat...
many potential witnesses were unwilling to testify or present their testimonies to the metropolitan police for fear of reprisals in both the u.k. and in sri lanka...the organization is aware of at least one witness in sri lanka who provided information to the metropolitan police and who is still in sri lanka, without having been given any protection in that country, or having been given the choice of being relocated elsewhere...not surprisingly under these circumstances this witness may now face a real risk of reprisals for having given information to the police investigation into karuna...said amnesty international:
“We have expressed our concerns to the Metropolitan Police that not enough may have been done to protect witnesses, and reassure potential witnesses, as they conducted their investigation. We would like to see the UK authorities introduce new measures in the future to try war criminals and protect witnesses."the u.k. authorities to establish effective witness protection programs for investigations into allegations such as these, modeled on the witness protection programs of the international criminal tribunal for the former yugoslavia, the international criminal tribunal for rwanda, the special court for sierra leone and the international criminal court...the organization also calls on the u.k. authorities to set up an independent and specialized police and prosecution unit with sufficient resources to deal with crimes against humanity, torture and war crimes...
peace out <3
No comments:
Post a Comment