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Sri Lanka: Armed Conflict

Volume 486: debated on Thursday 15 January 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what estimate he has made of the number of people arrested and detained in Northern Sri Lanka in connection with the conflict between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam since January 2008. (243162)

It is extremely difficult to obtain accurate, independent information about events in northern Sri Lanka where the armed forces are engaged in active military hostilities with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and so we have no credible information on which to base an estimate. We nevertheless continue to be seriously concerned about human rights across Sri Lanka, including reports of incidents of the targeting and mistreatment of civilians, intimidation of the media, abductions and disappearances, arrests and detentions and the internal displacement of the population by conflict.