Prageeth Eknaligoda ... missing since January 2010.

Reuters
Colombo
Sri Lankan police have detained 11 people, most of them soldiers or former soldiers, in a widening probe into the disappearance of a cartoonist that has become a test case of the new government’s resolve to address human rights abuses.
Prageeth Eknaligoda, a fierce critic of former president Mahinda Rajapakse, went missing near Colombo more than five years ago, triggering allegations from his wife and rights activists that he had been abducted by government agents.
At the time of his disappearance in January 2010, Eknaligoda was working on a story on the alleged use of cluster bombs by Sri Lanka’s military in the final months of the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, his colleagues said.
The military has denied any such use.
New President Maithripala Sirisena has vowed to prosecute members of the previous administration for abuse of power and the first arrests in the high-profile case were made in August, a police official said.
Army spokesman Jayanath Jayaweera said four of the detained men were serving soldiers while the rest were ex-soldiers and informers employed by the military.
“It has been disclosed during the investigations these 11 people had taken Prageeth to a camp. Last week they were taken to this camp and questioned,” police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.
Sri Lanka is under the global spotlight after a United Nations probe found that both the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger separatists committed war crimes including mass killings of civilians in the 26-year-long war that ended in 2009.
Eknaligoda’s case could set a precedent for prosecution of war crimes, especially against serving members who have been beyond the reach of the law for their role in the conflict, activists say.
A spokesman for the military said it was fully cooperating with the police investigation. The military had withdrawn all privileges of the detained men, spokesman Jayaweera said, pending the investigation.
Opposition for referendum
on hybrid court: The opposition has called for a referendum on a hybrid court proposed for Sri Lanka by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein.
Al-Hussein had called for a hybrid court with local and foreign judges to look into accountability issues over the final stages of the war between the Tamil Tigers and the military.
Opposition leader Wimal Weerawansa said the government cannot blindly agree to set up the hybrid court, reports Xinhua news agency.
He said that since the government was elected by the public, people should be allowed to decide if they want such a hybrid court to look into accountability issues.
Weerawansa was speaking in parliament during a debate on the report as well as two other human rights reports.
He also accused the government of submitting to international pressure on the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), a controversial anti-terror law.
He said the government must not abolish the PTA but make suitable amendments if
required.
Weerawansa also said that Sri Lanka was not legally bound to implement the resolution on the country adopted by the UN Human Rights Council earlier this month.
The Illangai Thamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), a minority Tamil political party, however commended the government for co-sponsoring the resolution and urged the government to fully implement it.
ITAK lawmaker Mavai Senathirajah said the resolution does not mention a hybrid court but a judicial system with international assistance.
Senathirajah also warned that if people push Sri Lanka to be a “Sinhalese, Buddhist” country, it would eventually lead to Tamils pushing for a separate state.