As LeN reported on the 24 th March so it had happened- the Rajapakse regime fabricates a story that an LTTE deputy leader had been captured

(Lanka-e-News- 09.April.2014, 7.00PM) On 24th March, Lanka e news English edition reported under the heading ‘Rajapakse modus operandi to resurrect ‘LTTE’ revealed -full details herein ’ about the conspiracy that is being hatched by the regime to create an LTTE.

''On the conspiratorial plan of the Rajapakse regime it is to be announced tomorrow , that a deputy leader of LTTE was among the LTTE 200 cadres ( or thereabouts) that were captured at Vaddukodai .This LTTE deputy leader created by the government is Manikal Kandhan alias Kandanalayan.

The fabricated story of the government was to made public thus : this deputy leader was arrested along with 9 others , and they were being interrogated by the terrorist investigation division (TID) .'' 

However following the Lanka e news exposure ahead , the government was forced to change its conspiratorial plan, and the infamously famous police media spokesman had revealed a different story .

Based on this new story , it is the deputy leader of the Nediyawan group who had been captured. His name is Kablan alias Nandagopalan , and that he was captured at the Kuala Lumpur , airport, Malaysia.

Some time ago when Kapilan was trying to leave Malaysia on a forged passport he was arrested and produced before court . He was then jailed in Malaysia for 6 months. Thereafter he was deported to SL when he was arrested three months ago at the Katunayake airport. The police media spokesman who has a rare forked tongue and therefore a rare cursed gift to ever utter lies and never truths had stated Nandagopalan is held in custody by the TID and being questioned.

Following the adoption of resolution at the UN human rights commission (UNHRC) to conduct an international investigation against the Rajapakse regime and the LTTE , the regime is in the process of creating an ‘LTTE’ , and taking great pains to paint a false picture that the UNHRC is helping the LTTE , and mislead the people. The outcome of this conspiracy was , 16 organizations and 424 individuals living abroad being labeled as supporters of LTTE and barring them.

Since the question can be posed how can those abroad help the LTTE which is no longer existing in SL ? The Rajapakses in order to answer this question are creating an ‘LTTE’. But because Lanka e news exposed this plan ahead , the plan had to be changed, and now an LTTE deputy leader had been ‘imported’ from Malaysia to conform with the new conspiracy. 

It is interesting to note that earlier on , though the government said K.P. was brought into the country from Malaysia, it came to light later that he came to SL following the secret pact entered into with the government.

According to the latest information reaching Lanka e news , the aim of the government is to go before the Geneva HRC and reveal , it is based on the recently arrested LTTE deputy leader’s disclosure, the two TNA MPs , Adaikalanathan and Sivajilingam are to be arrested when they return to SL ,for helping the LTTE.

UK hopes Lanka attends summit

By admin on April 9, 2014

Britain hopes Sri Lanka will attend a summit in June which looks at preventing sexual violence in conflict situations.

The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs William Hague told the British Parliament yesterday (Tuesday) that he is not able compel any Government to attend the summit but he has encouraged Sri Lanka to do so.

“I have invited the 143 nations that so far have endorsed the declaration that I launched on ending sexual violence to attend the summit in June, but I cannot force any of them to do so. However, given events in Sri Lanka in recent decades, it would be highly appropriate for the Sri Lankan Government to be there and to present their plans. I have encouraged them to do so,” he said.

Meanwhile Hague said the UK would not have succeeded in pushing for the resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council recently had it not been for the British Prime Minister’s leadership, Britain’s presence in Sri Lanka and the UK Government’s willingness to show how passionate they are about what happened in the north of Sri Lanka.

“The Opposition’s attitude of not going to Sri Lanka would have been a terrible misjudgment,” he said.

Meanwhile the Minister of State at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office Hugo Swire, who also spoke in Parliament, said now that the international community has spoken through the United Nations Human Rights Council, it is important that the Government in Colombo listen to what has been said and what is asked of them.

The UN Human Rights Council had adopted a resolution calling for an international investigation into the war in Sri Lanka but the Government has maintained it will not comply with the resolution. (Colombo Gazette)

BBS Gnanasara Strikes Again In Full View Of Police

April 9, 2014

The General Secretary of the Bodu Bala Sena together with a mob inclusive of monks stormed a press conference organised by the rival Jathika Bala Sena Watareka Vijitha Thero and abused the monk preventing him from speaking to the journalists present and in full view of the Police personnel present.

BBS monks threatening Jathika Bala Sena monks holding Press Conf. @ Nippon Hotel #lka pic.twitter.com/ZxEiLi7BLI

The incident took place this morning at the Hotel Nippon in Colombo.

Watareka Vijitha Thero was a vocal critic of the conduct of Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thero and wasassaulted and hospitalised last year while travelling in a vehicle. The monk alleged that the BBS was behind the assault. No person was apprehended or arrested by the Law Enforcement authorities following the assault.

The BBS General Secretary while verbally abusing the head of the Jathika Bala Sena coerced him into apologising for convening a press conference and ordered the disbanding of the organisation.

Watareka Vijitha Thero who was surrounded by the mob inclusive of monks had agreed to apologise and disband the organisation.

Sources however confirmed to the Colombo Telegraph that Vijitha Thero would make a Police complaint shortly at the Slave Island Police.

Around 40 Police personnel who were present during the fracas had not attempted to prevent the abuse nor acted against the violation of the right to the freedom of expression.

Rescuing Patriotism from the Extremists

Photo: Paula Bronstein for The Global Mail

• by A.M. Faaiz 
• - on 04/09/2014 

It is almost five years since the military victory of May 2009 brought an end to three decades of armed conflict. Yet, the prospects for securing a stable and inclusive peace in Sri Lanka appear bleak. 

Rescuing Patriotism From the Extremists by nelvely

The Geneva Stakes And The Politics Of Global Geo-Political Rivalry

By Surendra Ajit Rupasinghe -April 9, 2014 

Ajit Rupasinghe

The Geneva stakes center around the 3^rd US resolution presented to the UNHRC against the Mahinda Rajapaksa Regime that was adopted by 23 countries voting in favor, 12 abstaining and 12  voting against. The resolution established an international mechanism for investigating violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, including war crimes, to be supervised by the Commissioner of the UNHRC.

For the US, the so-called Western bloc, and including Japan and India, the agenda is set on either prying the Rajapaksa Regime from its increasing gravitation into the Chinese sphere of influence, or to replace it by a more pliant Regime. It is to be recalled that following a recent visit by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to China, both states declared that they had decided to raise their relationship to one ofstrategic cooperation.  Already, China, a rising imperialist power, has gained effective financial, economic and strategic influence over the island, as a vital link in its ‘string of pearls’.

This development contributed towards a signal change in the strategic balance of power in the whole Asian Pacific/ Indian Ocean region in favor of China. China is now a rising imperialist power with a growing potential to challenge US global hegemony and Indian regional hegemony and to dictate the structure of a new international order. At the same time, the US, EU, Japan, Russia, China and India are locking horns to establish their domain as against rival imperialist blocs and their coalitions. There is both collusion and contention between and within these rival imperialist blocs in their struggle for survival, ruled by the law : ”Expand or Die”. This rivalry and contention between and among imperialist blocs for supremacy drives all imperialist states towards the need to re-divide the world and  recast the international political order. This is the law and logic of Capital under imperialism – a permanent state of intensifying competition for the ever expanding need to secure raw materials, harness exploitable labor and conquer new markets to maintain an average of profit. Those that fail to advance shall be devoured. This basic contradiction of the system of imperialism is ultimately resolved through world wars for the violent re-division of the world- as two world wars have already attested. This law and logic of inter-imperialist rivalry  underlies the emerging political conjuncture, the emerging global geo-political configuration and defines the Geneva Stakes.  More fundamentally, this logic defines the basic dynamic in the politics of the Middle-East, and now, in the Ukraine, where the contest is between two rival imperialist blocs represented by the US/EU alliance and Russia.               Read More

HR probe: Govt. won’t cooperate, but wants secret UN report released

April 8, 2014, 9:47 pm 

by Shamindra Ferdinando-April 8, 2014,

Now that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has received a mandate to inquire into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka, it would be imperative that a confidential war time dossier prepared by the UN mission in Colombo was made public, an authoritative security official told ‘The Island’.

The official emphasized that there couldn’t be a better ‘source’ than the UN report that dealt with fighting on multiple fronts in the Vanni region, both west and east of the Kandy-Jaffna road from August 2008 to May 13, 2009.

The then head of the UN mission in Sri Lanka, Neil Bhune (July 2007-February 2011), supervised the project. Bhune was succeeded by Subinay Nandi, a Bangladeshi national.

The Ministry of Defence and Urban Development stressed the need to reveal the dossier in a document titled Facts and Figures: Addressing Accountability.

Referring to a recent UN statement that the issue of confidentiality of sources/eyewitness needed to be considered at a later stage, the official said that instead of depending on unsubstantiated allegations propagated by interested parties the UN investigators could review the dossier prepared by the UN Country Team. The official pointed out that UNSG Ban Ki-moon’s three member Panel of Experts (PoE) in its March 2011 report rejected the UN findings on the basis the deaths and injuries reported were likely too be too low.

According to the dossier approved by the UN mission in Colombo, it estimated the number of deaths at 7,721 killed and 18,479 wounding during the period from August 2008 to May 13, 2009. However, it didn’t specify losses suffered by the LTTE fighting cadre, a failure even discussed in classified diplomatic cables originating from its mission in Colombo, at the height of the war.

UN spokesperson said told ‘The Island’: "The High Commissioner for Human Rights will now be making arrangements for a comprehensive investigation requested by the United Nations Human Rights Council and these are issues which will need to be considered at a later stage. In any case, the protection of witnesses and their consent to sharing their identities remain the overriding considerations when dealing with these matters."

The military alleged that the PoE dismissed the report as it clearly contradicted the lies propagated by the UK media outfit, Channel 4 News as well as its own assessment. Both estimated the number of deaths at over 40,000 killed.

The military pointed out that the UN report was based on information provided by local staff of the UN and other NGOs in the LTTE-held area, the ICRC, religious authorities and other sources. The official said that the UN mission in Colombo could still get in touch with those who had contributed to the report to enable UN investigators to verify facts.

How strategic is Sri Lanka?

By Parag Khanna, Special to CNN

updated 12:16 PM EDT, Wed April 9, 2014

Editor’s note: Parag Khanna is a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation and author of The Second World (2008), How to Run the World (2011), and Hybrid Reality (2012). The views expressed in this commentary are solely his.

(CNN) — Five hundred years ago as the Spanish and Portuguese empires were carving up the Western hemisphere into colonial spheres, Europe’s imperial competition in the Indian Ocean was equally intense.

How Strategic is Sri Lanka by nelvely

BJP Manifesto – What It Portends In Foreign Policy

By S. Sivathasan -April 9, 2014

S. Sivathasan

Time for Change, Time for Modi. So says the cover page of the 42 page Manifesto quite assertively.

Foreign Relations – Nation First

“BJP believes a resurgent India must get its rightful place in the comity of nations and international Institutions. The vision is to fundamentally reboot and reorient the foreign policy goals, content and process, in a manner that locates India’s global strategic engagement in a new paradigm and on a wider canvass, that is not just limited to political diplomacy, but also includes our economic, scientific, cultural, political and security interests, both regional and global, on the principles of equality and mutuality, so that it leads to an economically stronger India, and its voice is heard in the international fora.”

Ominous Stance

“In our neighbourhood we will pursue friendly relations. However, where required we will not hesitate from taking strong stand and steps.” – Emphasis added.

This declaration denotes  a drastic departure from “Decision and Policy Paralysis”, a feature of successive Congress administrations which had taken a proud nation to levels of degeneracy. A predicament in which the nation was smarting and chafing. A position which the BJP was determined to change and the authority for which is coming the way of the Party now. Even as the Party is on the verge of capturing power and has moved on to the threshold of getting an absolute majority, it declares its policy in no unambiguous terms.

The words look ominous for neighbours seen as errant or recalcitrant or working for purposes perceived by India to be inimical to her interests. No longer will a great power take kindly to being assailed by any of the smaller states acting on the strength of super power support erroneously misplaced. This is the message. The declaration is unmistakably with reference to the South Asian region. A theatre destined to see a decisive determination to secure India’s sphere of influence. Soft Power potential appears to be the resource to be tapped first.

More Excerpts

“BJP believes that political stability, progress and peace in the region are essential for south Asia’s growth and development. The Congress-led UPA has failed to establish enduring friendly and cooperative relations with India’s neighbours. India’s relations with traditional allies have turned cold. India and its neighbours have drifted apart. Instead of clarity, we have seen confusion. The absence of statecraft has never been felt so acutely as today. India is seen to be floundering, whereas it should have been engaging with the world with confidence. The collapse of the Indian economy has contributed to the sorry state of foreign affairs in no small measure.

“We will build a strong, self-reliant and self-confident India, regaining its rightful place in the comity of nations. In this, we will be firstly guided by our centuries old traditions. At the same time, our foreign policy will be based on best National interests. We will create a web of allies to mutually further our interests. We will leverage all our resources and people to play a greater role on the international high table.            Read More

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa plan to relocate between 280,000 to over 500,000 people form Colombo in next few years

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa plan to relocate between 280,000 to over 500,000 people form Colombo in next few years

Slave Island residents after the demolition of their homes,
February 2014 ( Cover photograph by Megara Tegal)

Wednesday, April 09, 2014 

''Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, now presiding over urban development in Sri Lanka, has repeatedly stressed that his goal is to transform Colombo into a slum-free, “world-class”, “garden city”; a "preferred destination for international business and tourism."  This is what the UDA’s Urban Regeneration Project (URP) seeks to realise. While full details of the URP have never been officially made public, it is fast becoming clear that it entails the forced relocation of thousands of poor and lower-middle income families across the city. Official estimates of the number of families to be relocated over next few years vary from “nearly 70,000” to 135,000. Assuming an average urban household size of 4.2 , this implies the relocation of anywhere between 280,000 to over 500,000 people, the scale and complexity of which presents wide ranging social and economic risks''

Forced evictions in Colombo: The ugly price of beautification by Centre for Policy Alternatives

The Centre for Policy Alternatives’ latest report “Forced Evictions in Colombo - The Ugly Price of Beautification” raises serious concerns with regard to the displacement of citizens in the city of Colombo due to the Urban Regeneration Project of the Urban Development Authority (UDA) and the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development. It questions both the ostensible goals and purpose underlying the Urban Regeneration Project as well as the means and processes employed by the UDA and the Government of Sri Lanka to realise them, in particular those pertaining to land acquisition and involuntary resettlement. 

Drawing from interviews with affected citizens from across different parts of the city and short case studies of the experience of three different communities - Java Lane and Mews Street in Slave Island and Castle Street in Borella, the report outlines the major issues and concerns with respect to the forced evictions in Colombo.

Of particular concern are the involvement of the military controlled UDA in forced evictions, the modalities of which are similar to those employed in the North and East of Sri Lanka, and the scale which, according to some estimates, could even dwarf displacement in Northern Sri Lanka during the final two years of the war. The report also argues that viewing the forced evictions in Colombo as part of a development project only serves to hide the enormous social, public and human costs.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) believes that in the process, a range of existing domestic legal and policy safeguards and standards are being flouted with impunity. The report underlines that respect for domestic and internationally recognised standards is crucial to both prevent and minimise forced evictions and ensure that any resettlement results in a significant accretion rather than erosion of civil, economic, political and social rights.

“This report is about yet another key contemporary issue that goes to the very heart of democratic governance in our country - transparency, the rule of law and equality before it. It deserves our critical attention. It cannot and should not be ignored”, says Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Executive Director, CPA.

Sri Lanka’s Displaced

Image Credit: trokilinochchi via Flickr

By Sarah Stodder-April 09, 2014

Tens of thousands of internally displaced persons in Sri Lanka place their hopes in a recent UN resolution.

Sanjeev sits nervously in a scuffed plastic chair, half-listening to the sounds of the road outside the displacement camp where he lives. Seven years have passed since his involvement in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the militant separatist organization that claimed a homeland for Sri Lanka’s minority Tamils until its demise in 2009. Sanjeev’s neck, where an LTTE cyanide capsule once hung, is now bare. After two years in a government rehabilitation camp, he believed he could return to his family’s brick house; instead, he returned to a corrugated metal shack and a military fence.

This month, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution establishing an international investigation into possible war crimes committed in the last months of Sri Lanka’s 26-year conflict. Of particular concern are an estimated 40,000 civilians killed as the military completed its final offensive in May 2009.

Though the UN resolution targets abuses committed during the war, it is aimed more broadly at the culture of impunity that has flourished under the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, architect of what the International Crisis Group has termed Sri Lanka’s “Potemkin Peace.” The past two months alone have seen a prominent journalist murdered, two well-known human rights activists detained, and a mass grave discovered.

For Sanjeev, reports of mass graves and missing persons punctuate the more chronic pain of internal displacement. Since the end of the war, the Sri Lankan military has occupied his home district of Sampur, but refuses to recognize his community as displaced. Stories like Sampur’s are common: as of April 2013, the government had seized an estimated 7,000 square kilometers of land in the post-conflict area.

While last week’s UN resolution does not directly address the plight of internally displaced persons (IDPs), their ability to one day regain their land hinges on whether an independent war crimes investigation can push the Sri Lankan government toward international standards of human rights and legal process.

The LTTE governed Sampur, a collection of villages on Sri Lanka’s east coast, until 2007, when the Sri Lankan military reclaimed it after a fierce battle. The government told Sampur’s more than 15,000 inhabitants that they could return to their land after demining.

But Sanjeev and his neighbors soon realized that the Sri Lankan government had little intention of following through. They learned that the government had quietly entered into an agreement with a state-owned Indian company to establish a coal power plant in Sampur. Rumor spread that a new road of reddish gravel leading from the military-held area had been supplied with the dust of Sampur’s houses.

The Sri Lankan government encouraged Sampur’s residents to relocate, but most chose to camp in a public lot in nearby Killivetti, where they have remained since 2007. Because they have no deeds to the land they occupy in Killivetti, aid organizations have no basis on which to build permanent housing.

When the conflict ended in 2009, Rajapaksa sought to eliminate the official number of IDPs as quickly as possible by returning Tamil civilians to their home districts. In September 2012, the government of Sri Lankadeclared all IDPs “resettled.”

Official figures, however, ignore communities like Sampur, which are displaced within their home districts. Investigative work by a Sri Lankan think tank, Center for Policy Alternatives, indicates that government deregistration of IDPs ignored intra-district barriers to resettlement such as military seizure of land. According to the UN, Sri Lanka still housed more than 93,000 unofficial IDPs in December 2012, three months after Rajapaksa’s statement.

Camped in Killivetti, Sampur’s residents are deprived of their livelihoods and dependent on foreign aid. Two court cases filed on their behalf have gone nowhere. They and tens of thousands of other IDPs are casualties of military impunity and a lack of political will in Colombo to ensure a legitimate transition to normalcy for war-affected Tamils.

Scenes of U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron visiting the post-conflict area embarrassed Rajapaksa’s government at the 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and set the stage for the recent UN resolution. Cameron’s visit gave the world a glimpse of Sri Lanka’s lingering humanitarian crisis – a crisis not only of war crimes but also of internal displacement that could provoke future upheaval if left unresolved.

A tall fence keeps Sanjeev out of Sampur, but nothing keeps him in Killivetti. Yet at the suggestion of leaving, he shakes his head. He has no family elsewhere, so where would he go? More importantly, Sampur is his home, and he wants to fight for it. Perhaps he thinks of relocation as giving up.

A man without hope would not endure the endless surveillance, leaky roof, and loss of dignity that accompany life in a Sri Lankan IDP camp. He stays for the chance that a David Cameron – or perhaps the UN itself – might descend on Sampur, and that the world might listen.

Until then, he waits outside the military fence surrounding his home. For now, his only contact with Sampur is the road of fresh red gravel crunching under his feet.

Sarah Stodder served as a 2012-2013 Fulbright Scholar to Sri Lanka, where she studied the intersection of post-conflict reconstruction and natural disaster management. Fellow Fulbright Scholar Sean O’Connor assisted in researching this article.

‘Dhanapala Must Choose’ Says Saravanamuttu

April 9, 2014 

Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Executive Director of the Center for Policy Alternative, one of Sri Lanka’s major think tanks, told Colombo Telegraph earlier this morning that Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala must choose. “Given the information now in the public realm,” he said, “ I believe that the two positions – one within Dialog which blocks Colombo Telegraph and the other within Friday Forum which champions democratic governance – are incompatible. In that position, I would choose between them.”

Jayantha Dhanapala

Dhanapala is an “Independent, non-executive” director of Dialog Axiata PLC and also a leading member of the Friday Forum, which states it is committed to supporting the “rule of law,” “freedom of information and expression,” and  “an independent media.”

Earlier, on the 19th of March Dr. Saravanamuttu had saidthat, “I am sure that Ambassador Dhanapala will act within the framework of good corporate governance and in so doing uphold the best principles and practices of governance in general.”

Even though the blocking of CT by Dialog is an established fact, and has even been reported by an uncontested 2013 US State Department Human Rightsreport on Sri Lanka, Dhanapala continues to serve on the board of Dialog Axiata PLC, the holding company of the broadband telecommunications provider, which is one of the larger corporates, traded on the Colombo Stock Exchange. He has also said, he only learnt about the blocking from Colombo Telegraph itself, and also maintains that he can not speak for the company.

In earlier statements to Colombo Telegraph, Dr. Kumar David, Dr. Nirmal Ranjit Dewasiri, and Dr. Pradeep Jeganathan all pointed to the grave ethical issues raised by Dhanapala’s continuing presence on the board of Dialog. Dr. David, has as wondered if Dhanapala,“..may be influenced by the apparently large payment he receives for his services on the Board.”

While Colombo Telegraph has no direct information of the quantum of compensation Dialog pays Jayantha Dhanapala, the 2013 annual report of lists an amount in excess of 76 million Rupees, as directors compensation for the entire board of 8 members, who meet 7 times a year.

Dr. Dewasiri said, in an earlier statement to CT, “ Perhaps business interests are more damaging for freedom of expression and right to information than the state repression because the former is more subtle.”

Contacted for comment a few weeks ago, Dr. Jeganathan’s said, “It is certainly fair to say that Ambassador Dhanapala can not speak for Dialog Axiata PLC. But certainly, he can consult his conscience and speak for himself. And more importantly, act ethically…I have a deep disquiet about the very concept of ‘good governance’ – which implies that public affairs, and common interests can be ‘managed’ in the same way as a for profit company. This is perhaps where we need to rethink our collective ethical stance.”

Related posts;

Sri Lanka accused of ill-treating women it suspects of Tamil Tiger links

Women's group says government detaining females in ex-war zone in inhuman conditions and denying them medical facilities

Sri Lankan military has resumed search operations similar to those carried out during 25-year civil war. Photograph: Ishara S Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images

Associated Press in Colombo

Wednesday 9 April 2014 

A Sri Lankan women's rights group has claimed the government is arresting innocent female relatives of men it suspects are trying to revive the Tamil Tiger rebel group and subjecting them to ill-treatment.

Women's Action Network described the cases of six women it says were arrested from the north and east, the former civil war zone, because authorities suspected their male associates or family members had rebel links.

The group's statement said the criminal investigation department had detained the women in inhuman conditions, adding that some were elderly or needed medical and psychiatric care but were being denied those facilities.

Sri Lanka's government claims that the defeated Tamil Tigers are trying to regroup and that it is taking preventive measures.

However, ethnic Tamil politicians deny this and say this is being used as an excuse to maintain a high military presence and keep the people in fear.

Police spokesman Ajith Rohana said the women were detained for offences under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, including harbouring terrorist suspects. He said he would investigate allegations of medical care being denied to the detainees.

Police and the military resumed cordon and search operations similar to those carried out during the civil war to catch a person they identified as "Gopi", said to be the new leader of the Tamil Tigers. The women's network said police arrested five women for alleged links to Gopi.

Sharmila Gajeepan, 26, was pregnant when authorities arrested her claiming she was the wife of Gopi, which she denies. She said she had a miscarriage while being questioned and was not only denied medical care but on the same night was transported by train to a detention centre nearly 60 miles away, the statement said.

Police are also holding her 63-year-old mother-in-law and an elderly woman who is her helper, the statement said.

Balendran Jeyakumari, a leading activist in the effort to find missing people from the civil war, has been detained on charges that she harboured Gopi at her home. Jeyakumari's 13-year-old daughter, who was arrested with her, is in the custody of childcare officials.

Human rights groups have called Jeyakumari's arrest an attempt to intimidate activists into silence. A government book published a photograph of Jeyakumari's 15-year-old son being held in military custody, but authorities have denied any knowledge of him.

One detainee is accused of being a lover of Gopi. Another is a 61-year-old woman whose sons work abroad and sent her substantial sums of money regularly, the group said. Sri Lanka's government says expatriate Tamils could be sending money for terrorist activities.

"It doesn't appear that the officers treat these women as human beings. Officials transporting by train a woman, who on the same day had suffered a miscarriage without any medical help, is distressing," the statement said.

"Post-war the government is boastful about its achievements on women's rights and celebrates the Women's Day with much fanfare. But such degrading treatment of women is unacceptable."

Sri Lanka's military crushed the Tamil rebels in May 2009, ending a 25-year separatist campaign. According to a United Nations report, 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians were killed in the final months of the fighting.

The UN human rights council last month authorised an investigation into crimes committed by both sides in the civil war.