The United States barred Sri Lankan Army Chief, Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva from entering the country on charges of human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings during the country's civil war in 2009.

U.S. puts travel ban on Sri Lankan Lt. Gen. Silva over accusations of human rights violations

Amnesty International today called on authorities in Mali to investigate extra-judicial killings following the discovery last week of a mass grave containing six bodies.

The rights group said it had collected evidence that "the six bodies found in a mass grave on 25 March had been arrested by the military three days earlier in the village of Dogo and taken away to an unknown location."

"This macabre discovery comes after weeks of escalating violence which has left civilians in central Mali caught in the crossfire, facing enforced disappearances and unlawful killings by the military on one side, and roadside bombs and abductions by armed groups on the other," Amnesty's West Africa researcher Gaetan Mootoo said in a statement.

"We are urging the Malian authorities to investigate reports of enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings of civilians in the central region, and bring all those suspected of criminal responsibility to justice," Mootoo said.

The UN Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) on March 29 expressed "deep concern" over the increase in "serious violations and human rights abuses against civilians, including cases of summary execution" in the centre of the country, where jihadist groups are particularly active.

MINUSMA, which has 12,000 peacekeepers in Mali, said it had recorded at least 85 major violent incidents and armed confrontations that resulted in at least 180 civilian victims, including 15 women and 17 children, since the beginning of the year.

It said it was also worried about the extent of inter-communal violence in the central region, which has killed at least 50 people.

"Some cases are attributable to community self-defence groups," said MINUSMA, which welcomed Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga's recent visit to the restive region and the government's commitment to "shed light on serious violations and human rights abuses".

Maiga, who is charged with improving Mali's security situation, vowed to disarm militias during a visit to Koro on March 25.

In early 2012 Islamist extremists linked to Al-Qaeda and other armed groups took control of Mali's desert north, but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013.

That insurgency has since spread to the country's centre, where local grievances are exploited by the Islamists in a region awash with guns.

Another problem is deadly clashes between farmers and herders driven south to feed their animals in recent years.&nbsp

Mali to investigate extra-judicial killings following the discovery last week of a mass grave containing six bodies

Amnesty International today called on authorities in Mali to investigate extra-judicial killings following the discovery last week of a mass grave containing six bodies. The rights group said it had collected evidence that "the six bodies found in a mass grave on 25 March had been arrested by the military three days earlier in the village of Dogo and taken away to an unknown location." "This macabre discovery comes after weeks of escalating violence which has left civilians in central Mali caught in the crossfire, facing enforced disappearances and unlawful killings by the military on one side, and roadside bombs and abductions by armed groups on the other," Amnesty's West Africa researcher Gaetan Mootoo said in a statement. "We are urging the Malian authorities to investigate reports of enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings of civilians in the central region, and bring all those suspected of criminal responsibility to justice," Mootoo said. The UN Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) on March 29 expressed "deep concern" over the increase in "serious violations and human rights abuses against civilians, including cases of summary execution" in the centre of the country, where jihadist groups are particularly active. MINUSMA, which has 12,000 peacekeepers in Mali, said it had recorded at least 85 major violent incidents and armed confrontations that resulted in at least 180 civilian victims, including 15 women and 17 children, since the beginning of the year. It said it was also worried about the extent of inter-communal violence in the central region, which has killed at least 50 people. "Some cases are attributable to community self-defence groups," said MINUSMA, which welcomed Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga's recent visit to the restive region and the government's commitment to "shed light on serious violations and human rights abuses". Maiga, who is charged with improving Mali's security situation, vowed to disarm militias during a visit to Koro on March 25. In early 2012 Islamist extremists linked to Al-Qaeda and other armed groups took control of Mali's desert north, but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013. That insurgency has since spread to the country's centre, where local grievances are exploited by the Islamists in a region awash with guns. Another problem is deadly clashes between farmers and herders driven south to feed their animals in recent years.

Amnesty calls on Mali to probe extrajudicial killings

Nationwide protests at the police killing of a young ethnic Pashtun man in Pakistan&#39;s largest city have shone a spotlight on allegations of persecution by the authorities against refugees from the country&#39;s conflict-ridden northwest.

The country&#39;s Supreme Court launched an inquiry on January 19 into the death of 27-year-old aspiring fashion model Naqibullah Mehsud. He was one of four men killed six days earlier in what police initially said was a shoot-out with suspected Islamist militants. The Supreme Court plans to begin hearings on the case on Saturday.

The police team that killed Mehsud was under the command of senior superintendent Anwar Ahmed Khan, who has been suspended since Jan. 20 on the recommendation of a police inquiry committee. The committee was set up after Mehsud&#39;s father, Muhammad Khan Mehsud, who denies his son had any militant links, filed a kidnapping and killing complaint against him.

Anwar told Reuters he had done nothing wrong and said the investigation into his officers&#39; actions could allow the Taliban to regain a foothold in ethnic Pashtun parts of the city.

&quot;I had no knowledge of Naqibullah Mehsud. My staff told me that he is a militant with a criminal history,&quot; he said.

Police data from 2011 reviewed by Reuters shows that in the seven years Anwar has been in charge of Karachi&#39;s Malir district, which has a large Pashtun population, at least 450 people have been killed in 200 clashes with police that involved weapons. The data does not give details of the circumstances of the shootings.

A senior police official, who asked not to be identified, said that the majority of those killed were ethnic Pashtuns. Pakistan&#39;s ethnic Pashtun borderlands have been a hotbed of Islamist militancy in recent decades.

Militant policy

Pakistani police refer to any armed clash with suspects as an &quot;encounter&quot;. Some human rights activists and families of victims have for years alleged that such incidents are often staged to cover up extrajudicial killings.

Anwar told Reuters that armed operations to kill suspects were official police policy in Sindh Province, of which Karachi is the capital, to combat the threat from militants.

&quot;There was an on-going official policy ... for carrying out encounters to take out criminals and I have broken no law,&quot; he said.

The provincial police chief denied there was such a policy.

&quot;I don&#39;t need to respond to irresponsible allegations,&quot; Inspector General of Sindh police Allah Dino Khawaja said in a brief text message in reply to Reuters&#39; questions. &quot;He has to appear before the investigation to defend and prove his claims.&quot;

Sindh police said in a statement on Jan. 20 it had launched an inquiry &quot;to ascertain the facts regarding the police encounter in which Naqibullah Mehsud was killed&quot;.

Some campaigners among the sprawling city&#39;s Pashtun community say the story is not unusual. But it is the first to receive nationwide attention - in part because Mehsud, known as Naqib, does not fit the image of the militant from Pakistan&#39;s lawless northern heartlands.

&quot;He had a passion for wearing good clothes ... even in the picture of his body circulating on social media, he is seen wearing good clothes,&quot; his cousin Noor Rehman told Reuters, while holding back tears.

Another senior police officer said no evidence linking Naqib to militancy had been found.

&quot;His particulars were checked in all the criminal databases of police and nothing came up,&quot; the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Pakistan&#39;s chief justice on Tuesday summoned Anwar to appear for questioning at its first hearing this weekend. Earlier that day, he was not allowed to board a flight leaving Pakistan for Dubai, Pakistan&#39;s Federal Investigation Agency said.

Anwar told Reuters he does not plan to appear before the court. He said his children are studying in Dubai and he frequently visits.

Target group

Pashtuns are Pakistan&#39;s second largest ethnic group, and many have moved to the country&#39;s big cities to escape violence along the Afghan border.

But since the emergence of the Pakistani Taliban, whose leadership also comes from the Mehsud tribe in South Waziristan, Pashtuns who spoke to Reuters in Karachi say they are all now seen as potential militants.

&quot;This is not just about the fact that police are killing people, it is about racial profiling,&quot; Jibran Nasir, a human rights lawyer who said he was filing a petition with the Senate&#39;s human rights committee, told Reuters.

&quot;Naqib had a very public profile. Looking at pictures of Naqib modelling ... no one is willing to believe he had anything to do with Taliban. The problem here is not every Pashtun killed and profiled here is a model.&quot;

Figures posted by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on its website show 1,226 people were killed in 784 police encounters nationwide in the past two years.

In the days after Mehsud was killed, thousands of activists and Pashtun students staged protests in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Islamabad and Quetta.

In Sohrab Goth, the majority Pashtun suburb of Karachi where Naqib&#39;s family live, three families told Reuters they had lost relatives in such incidents.

Reuters was shown death certificates and newspaper clippings, but was not able to independently confirm the circumstances of their deaths.

Sohail Anwer Sial, home minister in the Sindh provincial government whose department is responsible for the police, said the authorities were taking action over the Mehsud case, but that one or two incidents did not mean the entire police force was corrupt.

&quot;The same police force ... eradicated violence from the city during Karachi operation&#39;, which began in 2013 against militants,&quot; he said. &quot;One person&#39;s actions cannot be allowed to malign the system.&quot;

The country's Supreme Court launched an inquiry on January 19 into the death of 27-year-old aspiring fashion model Naqibullah Mehsud

Nationwide protests at the police killing of a young ethnic Pashtun man in Pakistan's largest city have shone a spotlight on allegations of persecution by the authorities against refugees from the country's conflict-ridden northwest. The country's Supreme Court launched an inquiry on January 19 into the death of 27-year-old aspiring fashion model Naqibullah Mehsud. He was one of four men killed six days earlier in what police initially said was a shoot-out with suspected Islamist militants. The Supreme Court plans to begin hearings on the case on Saturday. The police team that killed Mehsud was under the command of senior superintendent Anwar Ahmed Khan, who has been suspended since Jan. 20 on the recommendation of a police inquiry committee. The committee was set up after Mehsud's father, Muhammad Khan Mehsud, who denies his son had any militant links, filed a kidnapping and killing complaint against him. Anwar told Reuters he had done nothing wrong and said the investigation into his officers' actions could allow the Taliban to regain a foothold in ethnic Pashtun parts of the city. "I had no knowledge of Naqibullah Mehsud. My staff told me that he is a militant with a criminal history," he said. Police data from 2011 reviewed by Reuters shows that in the seven years Anwar has been in charge of Karachi's Malir district, which has a large Pashtun population, at least 450 people have been killed in 200 clashes with police that involved weapons. The data does not give details of the circumstances of the shootings. A senior police official, who asked not to be identified, said that the majority of those killed were ethnic Pashtuns. Pakistan's ethnic Pashtun borderlands have been a hotbed of Islamist militancy in recent decades. Militant policy Pakistani police refer to any armed clash with suspects as an "encounter". Some human rights activists and families of victims have for years alleged that such incidents are often staged to cover up extrajudicial killings. Anwar told Reuters that armed operations to kill suspects were official police policy in Sindh Province, of which Karachi is the capital, to combat the threat from militants. "There was an on-going official policy ... for carrying out encounters to take out criminals and I have broken no law," he said. The provincial police chief denied there was such a policy. "I don't need to respond to irresponsible allegations," Inspector General of Sindh police Allah Dino Khawaja said in a brief text message in reply to Reuters' questions. "He has to appear before the investigation to defend and prove his claims." Sindh police said in a statement on Jan. 20 it had launched an inquiry "to ascertain the facts regarding the police encounter in which Naqibullah Mehsud was killed". Some campaigners among the sprawling city's Pashtun community say the story is not unusual. But it is the first to receive nationwide attention - in part because Mehsud, known as Naqib, does not fit the image of the militant from Pakistan's lawless northern heartlands. "He had a passion for wearing good clothes ... even in the picture of his body circulating on social media, he is seen wearing good clothes," his cousin Noor Rehman told Reuters, while holding back tears. Another senior police officer said no evidence linking Naqib to militancy had been found. "His particulars were checked in all the criminal databases of police and nothing came up," the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Pakistan's chief justice on Tuesday summoned Anwar to appear for questioning at its first hearing this weekend. Earlier that day, he was not allowed to board a flight leaving Pakistan for Dubai, Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency said. Anwar told Reuters he does not plan to appear before the court. He said his children are studying in Dubai and he frequently visits. Target group Pashtuns are Pakistan's second largest ethnic group, and many have moved to the country's big cities to escape violence along the Afghan border. But since the emergence of the Pakistani Taliban, whose leadership also comes from the Mehsud tribe in South Waziristan, Pashtuns who spoke to Reuters in Karachi say they are all now seen as potential militants. "This is not just about the fact that police are killing people, it is about racial profiling," Jibran Nasir, a human rights lawyer who said he was filing a petition with the Senate's human rights committee, told Reuters. "Naqib had a very public profile. Looking at pictures of Naqib modelling ... no one is willing to believe he had anything to do with Taliban. The problem here is not every Pashtun killed and profiled here is a model." Figures posted by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on its website show 1,226 people were killed in 784 police encounters nationwide in the past two years. In the days after Mehsud was killed, thousands of activists and Pashtun students staged protests in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Islamabad and Quetta. In Sohrab Goth, the majority Pashtun suburb of Karachi where Naqib's family live, three families told Reuters they had lost relatives in such incidents. Reuters was shown death certificates and newspaper clippings, but was not able to independently confirm the circumstances of their deaths. Sohail Anwer Sial, home minister in the Sindh provincial government whose department is responsible for the police, said the authorities were taking action over the Mehsud case, but that one or two incidents did not mean the entire police force was corrupt. "The same police force ... eradicated violence from the city during Karachi operation', which began in 2013 against militants," he said. "One person's actions cannot be allowed to malign the system."

Pakistan police killing of a Pashtun youth fuels anger over 'encounters'

Police in Rio de Janeiro state, which hosts next month&#39;s Olympics, killed at least 645 people in the last year and 8,000 over the decade, a rights group said today. 
 
The grisly toll includes dozens of execution-style killings in addition to the lethal violence used during standard police work in the state, the report from Human Rights Watch said. 
 
The international rights group identified 64 cases in the last eight years in which Rio police allegedly tried to cover up extrajudicial killings of 116 people, including at least 24 minors. 
 
&quot;Killing criminals was a requirement from my superiors as a way of showing that we were performing well,&quot; one of 30 police officers interviewed for Human Rights Watch&#39;s study alleged. 
 
The officer, who like all the others spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of &nbsp;reprisals, said he had been stationed in one of Rio&#39;s most dangerous neighborhoods where he took part in operations against heavily armed drug traffickers. The strategy was to kill them as a way to reduce crime, he said. 
 
The officer, who is still on the force, was quoted as saying that some police would capture suspected drug traffickers and kill them, sometimes to gain status as killers and to boost their own extortion rackets. 
 
The pressure to play along makes honest policing difficult in Rio, according to the report, titled &#39;Good cops are afraid:&#39; The toll of unchecked police violence in Rio de Janeiro.&quot; 
 
&quot;Illegal executions by police colleagues turn an already dangerous job into something even more dangerous&quot; and stokes anger against the authorities, the report said. 
 
Rio state&#39;s prosecutor general, Marfan Martins Vieira, also told Human Rights Watch that a large proportion of shoot-outs reported by police are faked. 
 
However, he said that his office had only taken on &quot;a very small number&quot; of cases involving murder by police. 
 
Vieira accused the Civil Police, which investigates homicides, of not fulfilling its task, but Human Rights Watch says the ultimate responsibility lies with prosecutors and that they should be pursuing the culprits. 
 
Only eight of the 64 cases investigated by Human Rights Watch have gone to trial and only four of those resulted in prison terms for police. 
 
(AFP)

They killed 645 people last year, the grisly toll includes dozens of execution-style killings

Police in Rio de Janeiro state, which hosts next month's Olympics, killed at least 645 people in the last year and 8,000 over the decade, a rights group said today. The grisly toll includes dozens of execution-style killings in addition to the lethal violence used during standard police work in the state, the report from Human Rights Watch said. The international rights group identified 64 cases in the last eight years in which Rio police allegedly tried to cover up extrajudicial killings of 116 people, including at least 24 minors. "Killing criminals was a requirement from my superiors as a way of showing that we were performing well," one of 30 police officers interviewed for Human Rights Watch's study alleged. The officer, who like all the others spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said he had been stationed in one of Rio's most dangerous neighborhoods where he took part in operations against heavily armed drug traffickers. The strategy was to kill them as a way to reduce crime, he said. The officer, who is still on the force, was quoted as saying that some police would capture suspected drug traffickers and kill them, sometimes to gain status as killers and to boost their own extortion rackets. The pressure to play along makes honest policing difficult in Rio, according to the report, titled 'Good cops are afraid:' The toll of unchecked police violence in Rio de Janeiro." "Illegal executions by police colleagues turn an already dangerous job into something even more dangerous" and stokes anger against the authorities, the report said. Rio state's prosecutor general, Marfan Martins Vieira, also told Human Rights Watch that a large proportion of shoot-outs reported by police are faked. However, he said that his office had only taken on "a very small number" of cases involving murder by police. Vieira accused the Civil Police, which investigates homicides, of not fulfilling its task, but Human Rights Watch says the ultimate responsibility lies with prosecutors and that they should be pursuing the culprits. Only eight of the 64 cases investigated by Human Rights Watch have gone to trial and only four of those resulted in prison terms for police. (AFP)

Rio police kill, torture with impunity: Rights group

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