The International Red Cross has angrily accused Sri Lanka's government of releasing confidential communications and manipulating information from the organisation to defend its rights record.In rare public criticism of a government, the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Colombo has been "misrepresenting its findings" to stave off allegations it was behind abductions and disappearances. The row surrounds Sri Lanka's use of a confidential report by the ICRC, which did not give a figure for disappearances on the war-torn island, to dispute ongoing allegations that hundreds of people had gone missing on the island.The Sri Lankan government is locked in a bitter war with Tamil Tiger separatist rebels, and is under increasing international criticism over a spate of murders, abductions and disappearances.

The ICRC, known for its strict rules of confidentiality and neutrality, said it "deplores" Sri Lanka's "publication and sharing of confidential reports submitted exclusively to the Sri Lankan authorities." Turning the tables on the Sri Lankan government, the organisation also said extra-judicial killings and disappearances were part of a pattern of abuses in Sri Lanka that need to be stopped.

"The ICRC strives to bring this about through its confidential and direct dialogue with the authorities concerned. For this reason, we prefer not to enter into a public debate on the number of disappeared in Sri Lanka," said Jacques de Malo, ICRC's head of operations in South Asia, on Wednesday. Colombo has come under fire for its rights record, with Human Rights Watch saying recently that at least 1,500 people "disappeared" between 2006 and 2007 -- mostly ethnic Tamils living in the island's restive north and east.

The New York-based rights group said Sri Lanka was one of the world's worst perpetrators of "disappearances" and abductions and described the situation as a "national crisis." Tens and thousands have died since the Tamil Tiger rebels launched a separatist campaign in 1972 for autonomy or independence for minority Tamils in the island's north and east from the majority Sinhalese community.

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