2
3.
the top civil liberties lawyers.
Amnesty has little information on the treatment of returnees, although reports
have been received of arrest and ill-treatment (e.g. a Tamil forcibly returned from France in October 1984). Amnesty is currently investigating these claims. Amnesty International is deeply concerned that under the Sri Lankan Prevention of Terrorism Act there exists the possibility of 18 months imprisonment, incommunicado, (prisoner's relatives have no right to contact the authorities let alone the prisoner himself).
According to the latest figures (in the Herald Tribune) there are approximately 30,000 Tamils in Europe. A similar figure has been mentioned for Tamils in India.
UNHCR's view is that in principle Tamils should not be returned to Sri Lanka. However, if it is established without doubt that an individual's reluctance to return is due to personal reasons only, that individual may be returned. Such returns could only be envisaged after exhaustive examination, when the authorities are absolutely sure that there is not the slightest risk to the returnee's security.
UNHCR have restated this position since the decision of the Swiss government (not yet implemented) to expel Tamils from Switzerland. So far HCR's position has been respected by most governments, but now Danes have issued primary refusals to Tamils and HCR is concerned about the German position.
The problem seems to be of where the burden of proof lies: if the initial position is that the situation in Sri Lanka is so serious that no Tamil should be returned the burden of proof lies with the government. If however the government puts forward a counter-argument then the burden of proof shifts to the individuals under threat of return.
The German Federal Administrative Court is of the opinion that "group persecution is prevailing only if the community as such is the target of political persecution", i.e. each individual, be it on a national, regional or local level, fears political persecution merely because he bears the specific characteristics of his community. According to the finding of the Court of Appeal the group persecution of the Tamils ought to be accepted with regard to those areas where there have been excesses committed by the majority of the Singhalese civilian population against Tamils and where recurrence of such situations in the forseeable future is anticipated.
The government has now engaged Israeli anti-terrorist advisers to help locate and arrest terrorists.
The government has justified mass arrests by claiming this was the only way to catch Tamil terrorists, but that all who could prove their innocence would be released as soon as possible.