Washington halts aid to Colombo; blamed Lankans for gross human rights violations

May 11: The ‘deterioration of human rights’ and ‘of freedom of press’ in Sri Lanka, remain major concerns for the U.S.

This was stated by Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher, while concluding the three-day visit to the violence hit island country today. "There are two aspects that concern us most, one is abductions and killings, and the second is freedom of the press,� he said.

Washington has stopped some aid benefits to Sri Lanka, on reasons that human rights abuses have marked a rise amid renewed civil war in the country. Last week Britain also suspended around $3 million dollars of debt relief aid, citing concerns about human rights abuses and mushrooming defense spending by the Colombo.

While briefing media about the three-day visit, Boucher explained that Washington is concerned by a spate of abductions, killings, blamed on each side during two decades of conflict in the region. “Deterioration of human rights is going on in the island," Boucher said.

Colombo is in direct conflict with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elem (LTTE) from last two decades. LTTE is fighting for a separate homeland for Tamil within the Sinhalese dominated country. Their continuous and fierce fighting has killed nearly 70,000 people since 1983.

United Nations envoy to the country has accused some elements of the Sri Lankan military, along with breakaway rebel faction aligned with government, of involvement in extra judicial killings. LTTE has also been accused of severe human rights violations. It is worth mentioning here that the rebel group is listed as terrorist organization by the United States, Britain and the European Union among others.

Boucher has raised the issue of safety of common men as he said that there should be concern about the common men living amidst the fighting groups. He stressed that it could be possible only after government will take strong notice of the human rights violations by the armed forces.

Washington seemed to have taken tough stand over the latest attempts by Colombo to increase the spending on defence and the reluctance of both the sides to come over to the table and start negotiations. LTTE, led by V.Prabhakaran, has vowed to increase the attacks to achieve the goal of independent country, while as Colombo has stressed on the need of wiping out the rebels.

Pertinent to mention here, American president is also under sever pressure from concerned quarters within his country for, what they call, severe human rights violation with Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan.