The Sri Lankan Presidential Commission appointed by the President Mahinda Rajapakse to investigate a widespread killings and disappearances most of them from the minority Tamils in the North and East of Sri Lanka where they are fighting for an independent homeland.The Commission said today, between September 2006 and February 2007 some 430 people were slain and most of them were Tamils from country’s minority community. During the same September to February period, a total of 2,020 people were either abducted or disappeared, Tillakaratne said who was appointed by President Mahinda Rajapakse to look into these abductions, disappearances and unsolved killings last year. 

Sri Lanka came under tremendous pressure, ‘locally and internationally as there has been a big issue of abductions, disappearances and unsolved killings,’ Tillakaratne said, ‘This is something very bad for the image of the country.’ he said. Many of the slain have been executed with their hands tied behind their backs and shot through the head from close range. 

The Amnesty declared in March 2007, "600-odd people who have "disappeared" in the last 18 between November 2005 to March 2007 18 months periods after their arrest by the security forces, nearly all have died as a result of torture or been deliberately killed in detention." 

Sri Lanka shows no political will to probe a spate of murders, abductions and disappearances in Sri Lanka and crimes are being committed with impunity and the perpetrators of these crimes are being let loose and still at large in the community, many local and international rights groups said.

Courtesy: TENS