Despite an election campaign based on reform and reconciliation, Sri-Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has not yet done anything to curb human rights abuses, including torture, illegal abductions and disappearances. The victims, mostly from Sri Lanka's largely Hindu Tamil minority and the perpetrators mostly members of the country's intelligence services or military. The president specifically promised an end to abductions in his maiden speech, yet it is business as usual - no respite for the Tamil minority and not one election promise fulfilled.
It's time for President Sirisena to follow through on those promises and to end human rights abuses.
Sonya Sceats, director of policy and advocacy for Freedom from Torture, said that "[T]he president must match his rhetoric with a clear blueprint for rooting out torture from Sri Lanka's security sector and putting perpetrators on trial, no matter how powerful they may be."
Sadly, evidence of disappearances that were notorious under the repressive rule of previous president Rajapaksa as well as torture, abductions and sexual violence have resurfaced as recently as a few months ago. If Sirisena is looking for post-war reconciliation, then this has to stop.
Sri Lanka's post-war revival is dependent on Sirisena doing the right thing. For the sake of a nation that needs healing, sign this petition and let us show President Maithripala Sirisena that we are watching, and we will hold him accountable.
