International organizations and the international community have been raising their voices repeatedly against human rights violations in the country. But all such appeals and pleas have fallen on deaf ears. There has been no improvement at all in response to such appeals.

Human Rights Watch based in New York has once again made a serious allegation about child soldier recruitment by paramilitary groups working with the government. The latest report by the human Rights Watch makes a serious charge against the government. In the earlier reports the allegations of this nature were against the LTTE, security forces and the paramilitary groups.

But in its last report it charges that the government has failed to honour its promise to take stern measures to check human rights violations. It has pointed out that the government has lost its credibility that it would stop the violations of human rights in the country. The undertaking given by the government that just and legal steps would be taken to contain human rights violations lacks credibility.

There were promises to appoint a committee comprising international monitors to inquire into the human rights violations. But nothing tangible has been done so far. This promise was made at a time when there was a big crisis. Several months have rolled by since the appointment of a committee but it doesn’t appear that it has started functioning.

It is in this background that the international community has realized that it is meaningless to trust the government that it would honour the promises. It is high time that the international community took meaningful steps to check this trend.

An English translation of the Editorial in Sudar Oli, a Tamil daily based in Colombo

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