New UK immigration report says #srilanka continues to operate an extensive intelligence gathering operation in the UK, monitoring protests, surveilling and unencrypted social media. #lka
Also for all those who said branding wasn't a thing & alleged the poor old victims actually paid someone to burn them - the UK Home Office now says "injuries which are self-inflicted by proxy are likely to be extremely rare".
And according to Robert Knox the burning with hot irons goes back to 1641:
Amnesty was reporting on burn marks on the chest of victims in 1989.
And again in 1997 - burning with heated metal rods:
& in 2009 in the @UNHumanRights OISL report more branding:
As we come up to UN #victimsoftorture day (26 June) let's recall the #srilanka security forces' 'White Vans' (synonymous with abduction & #torture - & sometimes disappearance) date back to the JVP era. They don't really stop & start, depending on the government in power - alas.
In 1989 an .@amnesty report said "in a typical case, plainclothes armed men arrived at the victims' home at night, travelling in Pajero keeps or Hiace vans...usually they gave no explanation for taking away the victim..."
@amnesty President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said in 2019: "May be our intelligence agencies used Hi Ace vans which are white. I did not introduce it. It happened under all the previous Governments".
Landmark UK immigration case slams lead agency in Reparation process in #srilanka@IOMSriLanka 4 lack of impartiality. IOM reportedly said allegations of discrimination against #tamils were just 'put forward to serve their own ends' Even Home Office called this "quite stark"!
@IOMSriLanka This is what the excellent ICJ 2010 Beyond Constraints report on 'rehabilitation' had to say regarding the risks of .@IOMSriLanka being involved in profiling inmates - noting thousands were arbitrarily detained in these military run camps.
@IOMSriLanka A/HRC/39/45/Add.2
Rehabilitation - The UN working group on arbitrary detention in 2018 called for apology and compensation. It never happened.