COLOMBO - SRI Lanka is one of the world's worst perpetrators of 'disappearances' and abductions, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday, calling for a UN mission to monitor rights abuses on the island.

At least 1,500 people 'disappeared' in 2006 and 2007, mostly in the island's restive north and east, with the majority of the victims being minority Tamils, the New York-based group said, describing the situation as a 'national crisis.'

In a 241-page report entitled 'Recurring Nightmare: State Responsibility for Disappearances' and Abductions in Sri Lanka,' HRW launched a scathing attack on the island's government.

Since fighting between the government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) escalated in 2006, HRW accused the military and pro-government armed groups of abducting and killing 'hundreds of individuals'.

In 2006 and 2007, the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances recorded more new 'disappearance' cases from Sri Lanka than from any other country in the world, the report said.

'Disappeared' persons are commonly subjected to torture or extrajudicial execution, Human Rights Watch said, adding that the vast majority of cases it documented indicated the involvement of state security forces.

It also said most of the victims were ethnic Tamils, but added Muslims and members of the island's majority Sinhalese community had also been targeted.

In many cases, the group said, security forces made individuals 'disappear' because of their alleged links with the LTTE, who have fought for a separate ethnic Tamil homeland for more than three decades.

Clergy, teachers, humanitarian aid workers, and journalists also were targeted, the report alleged.

Colombo pulled out of a tattered 2002 truce with the Tamil Tiger rebels in January in the belief that it would be able to crush the guerrillas and regain areas under rebel control.

But Ms Pearson, calling for a UN mission to monitor abuses, said: 'The end of the ceasefire means this crisis will continue until the government starts taking serious measures.' Sri Lanka has already rejected UN monitoring of the country's rights record.

The island's government also routinely denies allegations of excesses and has accused rights groups of supporting the rebels.

The Human Rights Watch report said however that Sri Lanka's foreign donors were not doing enough to link future assistance to a halt in rights abuses and urged them to insist that Colombo allow an international monitoring mission. -- AFP

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