A Sri Lankan court recently sentenced five people to death, including two police officers, for their role in the Bindunuweva Rehabilitation Centre massacre in 2000. The sentences were automatically commuted to life imprisonment as Sri Lanka has had a moratorium on the death penalty since 1976.

Less than half of the 40 inmates of the detention camp near Bandarawela, which housed suspected Tamil Tiger rebels and former child soldiers aged between 11 and 16, survived after a mob of over a thousand rampaged through the camp in October 2000. The Sri Lankan government has been accused of encouraging violence against young Tamils, through propaganda and impunity in atrocities against them. In this case, police officers, who were in uniform and armed, could have attempted to prevent or control the situation when a mob attacked camp inmates who were under their custody.

In response to local calls for an investigation into the incident, and justice for the innocent victims, Hotline issued UA001116(17); please refer to the UA for background information on the massacre.

Source:
Bangkok Post