Urgent Appeal Case

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you that an armed village chief and his men severely assaulted a tricycle driver whom they wrongly accused of attempting to escape liability from an accident.  CASE NARRATIVE: (The summary of the sworn statement by Leonardo Borja written in Filipino)  At 10pm on August 10, […]

Dear friends,  Mr. D.K.K.S. Shehan Fernando, a young man of 22, is in danger of losing his life due to the actions of a wealthy businessman in the Ja-Ela area The officers of the Ja-Ela Police Station are refusing to investigate the victim’s allegations while at the same time aiding the perpetrator of the several […]

Dear friends,  The Jayapura regional police in West Papua have charged eight medical workers with incitement and objectionable acts following their peaceful protest against regulation 141/2010 by the provincial governor. The regulation deprives the Jayapura hospital’s medical workers of certain payments. An earlier request to meet and discuss the situation was ignored by the governor. […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the Law Minister of the Gilgit and Baltistan provincial government and the provincial speaker produced a fake First Information Report (FIR) against the responsible police officials who killed a father and son and severely injuring five persons during a protest.  The police opened […]

Dear friends,  According to the information that the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) received around 150 men from Navanthurai, a village in the Jaffna District in Northern Province, were illegally arrested and detained in an operation conducted by the Sri Lanka Army at around 1.15 am on 23 August 2011. The villagers were severely beaten […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that three children have been on a token hunger strike for more than 50 days for the recovery of their mother who was abducted by the henchmen of a tribal chief and a political leader of ruling party. Her whereabouts are unknown. She was […]

Dear friends,  Palle Gedara Srinath Saliya Jayaratne (17) surrendered himself to the Panvilla police as he had been accused of theft. After consulting a lawyer and receiving assurances from the police that he would not be ill-treated he accompanied his parents to the police station. At the station he and his parents were verbally abused […]

Dear friends,  At a time that the proxy military government in Burma is purporting to bring about political change, it is continuing to arrest and falsely accuse citizens in various criminal cases. In this appeal, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) draws your attention to 14 persons accused in connection with a bombing in Pegu […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. Wasantha Abeysinghe (43) of Air Force Road, Kimbissa in the Matale District was illegally arrested and severely tortured by police officers attached to the Sigiriya Police Station on 12 July 2011. Wasantha was an ordinary peasant engaged in agriculture farming and Chena […]

Dear friends,  Mr. Alexander Thayaparan (48) of No 352, Hospital Road, Mannar was illegally arrested by officers attached to the Sri Lanka Navy on 17 April 2009. Thayaparan is disabled as his leg was amputated due to shelling some years earlier. He and his family were displaced by force due to the movements of the […]

Dear friends,  Three police officers accused of the murder of journalist Ridwan Salamun have been acquitted. Ridwan Salamun was covering the communal clashes in Tual, Southeast Maluku in August last year as a camera man for SUN TV. The police officers witnessed the assault against Mr. Salamun but did nothing to prevent it, effectively consenting to […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information concerning yet another case of coldblooded murder committed by the Border Security Force (BSF) operating along the Indo-Bangladesh border. MASUM, AHRC’s partner organisation in West Bengal informs that the BSF shot Mr. Alamgir Seikh at a close range, after the BSF apprehended him by […]

Dear friends,  Lieutenant Colonel Wickramasinghe Arachchige Ranjith Chandrasiri Perera (47) of No: 5B/27, Army Quarters, Kendalanda, Homagama is a commissioned officer attached to the Sri Lanka Army who served as the Commander of the Transit Army Camp at Ratmalana in 2009. Lt. Col. Wickramasinghe was illegally arrested and severely tortured by police officers attached to […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a journalist Mr. Nilupa Sanjaya Liyanagehewa of Neth FM, one of the Sri Lanka’s leading electronic media institutions, was assaulted by a group of 15 police officers attached to the Mulleriyawa Police Station on 4 June 2011. He was later admitted to the […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the chief news editor of the Jaffna-based Tamil newspaper ‘Uthayan’, Mr. Gnanasundaram Kuganathan (59) was assaulted by a group of unidentified persons on 29 July 2011. Following the assault Mr. Kuganathan was admitted to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital in critical condition. Later several […]

Dear friends,  Mr. Kalappam Manoharan (32) of Ratwatte Lower Division, Ukuwela in the Matale district was illegally arrested by officers attached to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) branch of Kandy Headquarters Police Station on 11 August 2008. Monoharan, a casual labourer, lived in the same village his whole life. After he was arrested he was severely tortured and later forced to sign a document prepared bythe police officers. Later he was produced before three Magistrate’s Courts; Kandy, Matale and Dambulla accused with fabricated […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received details about a private company in Burma that with the backing of retired army officers sent bulldozers in the dead of night to destroy an historic Muslim cemetery so that the land can be claimed for commercial activities. The destruction was stopped after interventions from […]

Dear friends,  A wealthy businessman was killed by a relative of his second wife who later attempted to abduct his two daughters. Prior to his murder the deceased complained to the Ragama Police requesting protection but as is usual in Sri Lanka no action was taken. The suspected mastermind behind the killing and abduction, the […]

Dear friends,  Tamil detainees in Bogambara Prison were severely tortured by the prison officials on 14 June 2011. They were threatened that they would face the same difficulties as Kuttamanni and Thangathurai, two former detainees who were killed. The prison officials later admitted the seven detainees to the Prison Hospital at Bogambara Prison. Neither the […]

Dear friends,  Ms. N. Agnes Malini of No:18, Gala Landa, Manikhinna in the district of Kandy is a widow and the mother of a 17-year-old boy named T. Yoganathan. Yoganathan was illegally arrested and severely tortured by police officers attached to the Manikhinna Police Station on 8 December 2010. Yoganathan lost his father in his […]