Human Rights was dismissed as the plaintiffs did not establish that their
personal position was any worse than that of other members of the Tamil
community who were returning to their country. The mere possibility of
ill-treatment was not in itself sufficient to foresee that they would be
subjected to ill-treatment following their return. (6)
7.11 The State party submits that the communication rests mainly on the
general situation of human rights in Sri Lanka. The authors do not link
that general situation to their personal situation. As to the general
situation in Sri Lanka, the report of the Working Group on Enforced or
Involuntary Disappearances (1998) indicates that persons most often
reported detained and missing were young Tamil men accused or
suspected of belonging to, collaborating with, aiding or sympathizing
with LTTE. The State party argues that the authors do not fall into this
category.
7.12 Furthermore, it states that the information provided by UNHCR
indicates that torture and other forms of mistreatment are not practised by
the police and security authorities in Colombo. The United States
Department of State Country Report for 1998 (dated February 1999)
indicates that there were no reports of disappearances in Colombo and
Jaffna. In March 1997, UNHCR reported that rejected asylum-seekers
who arrived with national travel documents should have no problems
when arriving at Colombo airport.
7.13 Moreover, the State party argues that in its assessment of the
communication, the Committee should take into consideration the
different measures taken by the Sri Lankan authorities to investigate and
prevent acts of torture, as well as remedies available to the authors. In this
context, the State party notes that, inter alia, all arrests and detentions
must be reported to the Human Rights Commission (established in 1997)
within 48 hours, the reports of three presidential commissions of inquiry
into past disappearances have been made public, investigations into 485
of the 3,861 cases of alleged human rights violations have been
completed and 150 alleged perpetrators charged in the High Court, and a
24-hour service to deal with public complaints of instances of harassment
by elements in the security forces has been established by the
Government.
7.14 With respect to the alleged violation of article 16 of the Convention,
the State party argues that this article obliges States parties to apply the
obligations contained in articles 10 to 13 to acts of cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment. As article 16 does not mention article