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WORLD NEWS Saturday 11 November 2017

Sri Lanka govt faces pressure over torture, rape allegations

By JAMEY KEATEN July this year.
PAISLEY DODDS “Someone has to do some-
Associated Press thing about this,” said Dr.
GENEVA (AP) — Sri Lanka’s Frank Arnold, one of sev-
government faced in- eral doctors who wrote to
creasing pressure Friday to U.N. Human Rights chief
answer for alleged human Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein and
rights violations following a called for an independent
recent war crimes lawsuit investigation into the Sri
and allegations from over Lankan torture allegations.
50 men who said they were “As forensic experts, we
raped, branded or tortured have collectively seen
as recently as this year. many hundreds of Sri Lank-
The men’s anguished de- ans who have fled their
scriptions of their abuses country following torture
come nearly a decade af- over the years,” the physi-
ter Sri Lanka’s civil war end- cians’ letter said.
ed and days ahead of a “We continue to receive a
review of the Indian Ocean worrying number of cases
nation by the U.N.’s top hu- from Sri Lanka despite the
man rights body. change of government.”
Doctors, psychologists, law- One of the men in the AP
makers and rights groups investigation said he was
have appealed to the Unit- held for 21 days in a small
ed Nations to investigate room where he was raped
new allegations published 12 times, burned with ciga-
by The Associated Press on rettes, beaten with iron rods Sri Lankans, many of whom said they were tortured in their home country, gather at a church
Wednesday. and hung upside-down. in London. Sri Lankan torture victims seeking asylum in Europe travel to London each week for
The AP reviewed 32 medi- Another man described English classes, counseling sessions and lunch. Sometimes, human rights investigators meet new
cal and psychological being abducted from victims willing to give their testimonies.
evaluations and inter- home by five men, driven (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
viewed 20 men who said to a prison, and taken to
they were accused of try- a “torture room” pocked crimes. Some, however, alleged crimes. tionship with Sri Lanka until
ing to revive a rebel group with blood splatters on the said it appeared their inter- “These allegations are horri- a full accounting has oc-
on the losing side of Sri Lan- wall. Most of the men say rogators were soldiers. fying, and must be fully and curred,” he said Friday.
ka’s 26-year civil war. they their captors identified Rep. Eliot Engel, top-rank- transparently investigated. Sri Lanka’s diplomatic mis-
Although combat ended themselves as members of ing Democrat on the House The seriousness of these sion in Geneva did not re-
in 2009, they say the torture the Criminal Investigations Foreign Affairs Committee, reports should also make spond to repeated calls
and abuse occurred from Department, a police unit said policymakers in Wash- the United States wary of or an email Friday seeking
early 2016 to as recently as that investigates serious ington cannot ignore these advancing our military rela- comment.q

US woman accused in Zimbabwe of subversion is freed on bail

By FARAI MUTSAKA make any statements. president, which carries up once-prosperous south- newspaper Zimbabwe Her-
Associated Press The 25-year-old New Jersey to a year in prison. ern African nation as the ald newspaper reported
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — native will return to court on O’Donovan has denied the economy collapses under that four people had been
The U.S. woman charged Wednesday. charges as “baseless and Mugabe, the world’s old- arrested and accused of
with subversion in Zimba- O’Donovan is accused malicious.” est head of state, who has booing the first lady at a
bwe over allegedly insulting of calling the 93-year-old It was the first arrest since ruled since 1980. This week ruling party rally over the
President Robert Mugabe Mugabe a “sick man” in Mugabe last month ap- his wife, Grace, moved weekend attended by the
on Twitter was freed Friday a tweet including an im- pointed a cybersecurity a dramatic step closer to president.
on $1,000 bail. age of the president with a minister, a move criticized succeeding him as leader O’Donovan, who has de-
Martha O’Donovan did not catheter. by activists as targeting so- after Mugabe fired his dep- scribed herself as a “media
speak to reporters as she She faces up to 20 years in cial media. Zimbabwe was uty Emmerson Mnangag- activist,” had been work-
emerged from a prison in prison if convicted for sub- shaken last year by the big- wa and accused him of ing with local social media
the capital, Harare, and version. She also faces a gest anti-government pro- plotting to take power, in- outlet Magamba TV, which
left in a U.S. Embassy vehi- charge of undermining the tests in a decade. cluding through witchcraft. says it produces “satirical
cle. Her lawyers also did not authority of or insulting the Frustration is growing in the Also Friday, the state-run comedy sensations.” q