Sri Lankan security forces have committed crimes of sexual violence against ethnic Tamils in state custody, a new Human Rights Watch report says.
The study focuses on cases of rape of men, women and minors detained between 2006 and 2012 because of their alleged links to Tamil Tiger rebels.
Based on its report, HRW is urging Sri Lanka to open criminal investigations.
Sri Lanka's government has consistently rejected allegations levelled against it by human rights organisations.
The country's troops defeated Tamil rebels in 2009 after 26 years of civil war.
As many as 100,000 people are thought to have died as the government battled secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fighting for a separate homeland.
Both sides were accused of human rights abuses in the conflict's final stages, when thousands of civilians were trapped in a thin strip of land in the north of Sri Lanka as fighting raged around them.
The report comes during a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, where a resolution against Sri Lanka's human rights record and the army's conduct at the end of the war is expected to be tabled.
'Unlawful tool'
The new HRW report says sex crimes committed by government security forces "sharply increased" following the ceasefire breakdown in 2006.
Most of the abuses were politically motivated, according to the report.
"Rape was one of the unlawful tools used by the military and police against suspected LTTE members or supporters to gather intelligence during the fighting and immediately after the conflict ended in May 2009, as well as to obtain information about any remnants of the LTTE since then, whether in Sri Lanka or abroad," it says.
- Investigate allegations of rape and other sexual violence by Sri Lankan security forces
- Prosecute those responsible for these crimes
- Abolish detention without charge or trial
- Lift access restrictions for NGOs
- Release individuals held without charge under emergency or anti-terrorism laws
The findings focus on 75 cases of alleged rape of 31 men, 41 women, and three boys aged under 18, all arrested for suspected links to Tamil rebels.
HRW conducted the interviews over a 12-month period with former detainees in Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
The research was carried out secretly because of government access restrictions, the organisation says. As a result, it was able speak only to ex-captives and not to current detainees, whose "fate is of urgent concern".
Based on the witness accounts, those behind the sex crimes are thought to have included members of the Sri Lankan army, police, and pro-government Tamil paramilitary groups.
"In all of the cases documented, the acts of rape and sexual violence were accompanied by other forms of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment by state security forces," the report says.
"The continued large-scale deployment of the armed forces in former LTTE areas of northern Sri Lanka, coupled with increased surveillance of civil society groups, has stymied community responses to rights abuses including sexual violence."
Based on its findings, the report has called on the Sri Lankan government to investigate and prosecute "those responsible, including persons with command or other superior responsibility, in proceedings that meet international fair trial standards".
Other recommendations include abolishing detention without charge or trial; granting humanitarian groups better access to the north of the country; and releasing individuals held without charge under emergency or anti-terrorism laws.
In 2011, a UN panel accused Sri Lankan forces and LTTE rebels of committing war crimes during the civil conflict.
It alleged that Sri Lankan troops had shelled civilians in a so-called no-fire zone and targeted hospitals in their push to finish off the Tamil Tigers. The government has denied such accusations.
The rebels were accused of holding civilians as human shields, using child soldiers and killing people who tried to leave areas under their control.
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