Accusing both the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE of having failed to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians from harm, human rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International (AI) are pushing the UN Human Rights Council to press the government to agree to the immediate establishment of an UN Human Rights field operation here with a strong monitoring mandate.

But in a letter written to UN human rights Commissioner Louise Arbour last week, Human Rights and Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe has reiterated government’s stand that it did not agree to a fully fledged OHCHR presence here saying "we hope that our consistently expressed position will be respected."

In a letter written as the top Human Rights body prepares to meet in Geneva from December 10 to 14, HRW and AI said that the human rights situation here "is rapidly deteriorating" with more than 50 civilians killed in the last two weeks of November alone.

It drew attention to the Nugegoda bombing on November 28 without naming the LTTE as the attacker but made no reference to the Kebbetigollewa attack where 16 civilians were killed.

HRW and AI said that civilians had also been killed by aerial bombardment, shelling and mortar attacks in Northern Sri Lanka.

It said that since September this year over 20,000 people have been newly displaced by the escalation in fighting between government forces and the LTTE which was described as insurgents and that the number of enforced disappearances and unlawful killings continued at very high levels in Jaffna.

This letter signed by senior officials of HRW and Amnesty was copied to Ambassador Dayan Jayatillake in Geneva, the UN member states who are observers at the Human Rights Council, the UN Secretary General, the Office of the UN High Commission of Human Rights, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and UNICEF.

There was no immediate government response to the open letter by HRW and AI demanding a greater UN involvement in human rights. However, the government released a letter dated December 5 from Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe restating Sri Lanka’s rejection of UN Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour’s call for a fully fledged OHCHR presence in the country and reiterating the government’s alternative proposals.

Samarasinghe, in his letter, said that the government and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights share common ground on the need for independent, credible and reliable reporting of human rights in Sri Lanka.

"The only outstanding issue is: which agency or entity should carry out that exercise – the OHCHR or national entities/structures.’’

The minister stressed that in Sri Lanka’s view, national mechanisms to promote and protect the human rights of Sri Lanka’s citizens in the long-term will be best served by creating a "strong national protection system" that is sustainable and robust.

Samarasinghe, in his letter, restated Colombo’s position that the government of Sri Lanka does not perceive the necessity for a "fully fledged presence of OHCHR in the country at present".