The United Nations has urged Sri Lanka to grant the country's Human Rights Commission unfettered access to its prisons, following deadly violence at an overcrowded facility earlier this week.
Sri Lankan authorities have said an investigation has been launched into clashes that broke out on Sunday between rival gangs at Negombo Prison, north of Colombo, leaving 20 inmates and eight guards dead.
United Nations rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani welcomed the pledge to carry out investigations, stressing that the probes must be prompt, independent and transparent. She described the violence, along with reports of reprisals against inmates by guards at other prisons, as deeply alarming.
Shamdasani said the families of the dozens killed and injured, both inmates and prison officers, deserved to know the truth and see accountability.
She called on authorities to grant the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka unfettered access to Negombo, as well as to all other prisons, including detention facilities to which prisoners were transferred and allegedly subjected to torture and other forms of ill treatment.
She further stressed that the violence at Negombo underscored the urgency of tackling structural concerns around detention in Sri Lanka, pointing to prolonged pre-trial detention, overcrowding and inadequate conditions in detention facilities.
She added that a disproportionate number of people were being held for drug related offences, many of whom, she said, should be receiving health centred responses rather than incarceration.
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