COLOMBO, Sept 3, 2007 (AFP) - At least 34 people have "disappeared" in Sri Lanka over the past three weeks, the Red Cross said Monday ahead of a United Nations meeting to discuss the island's human rights record.

The International Committtee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it has recorded 34 abductions by unknown persons throughout the country in the past three weeks.

Sri Lanka's rights record is due to be discussed when the UN Human Rights Council meets in Geneva from September 10-28.

The ICRCs findings came as Sri Lanka last week appointed a committee to probe allegations of child recruitment by an ethnic Tamil militia linked to the government.

Sri Lanka has come under severe criticism from local and international rights groups for allegedly colluding with the breakaway Tamil rebel faction known as the Karuna group. Colombo has denied the charge.

The London-based rights group Amnesty International said last month that hundreds of people disappeared in Sri Lanka in the past year and more than 5,700 such cases from the past three decades were under UN review.

Amnesty said many people taken in for questioning had subsequently disappeared. Rights groups have said that abuses have increased in tandem with an escalation of fighting between troops and the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Meanwhile, the ICRC said it had also handed over the bodies of 12 civilians, including three children, who were killed during weekend clashes between the military and security forces.

Both the Tigers and the military have blamed each other for the civilian deaths.

More than 5,400 people have been killed in clashes since December 2005 in an ethnic conflict that has claimed more than 60,000 lives since 1972.

©2007 AFP All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed. All reproduction or redistribution is expressly forbidden without the prior written agreement of AFP.

top