immigrant who may be forced to return to the war-torn Island.

Section director of Amnesty International Bermuda LeYoni Junos told The Royal Gazette she believed Chandrare Gophinath's claim that he would face execution if he returned to his homeland.

Gophinath arrived in Bermuda on March 17. Two days later he was stopped by US Immigration as he tried to board a flight to New York.

He was arrested when officials found fake travelling documents on him.

Gophinath -- who left Switzerland where he claimed his parents have asylum -- told Police he was temporarily living in England and intended to go via Bermuda and New York to Canada where many Sri Lankan refugees have fled.

Gophinath, scheduled to appear in Magistrates' Court next Wednesday, pleaded guilty on March 25 to having a forged Canadian passport in the name Marcello Rici "with the intent that it be act upon as genuine''.

He also pleaded guilty to using a British Airways airline ticket in the name of Marcello Rici fraudulently, and also admitted using a Bermuda Immigration card fraudulently.

Gophinath told Senior Magistrate Will Francis he feared he would be killed, if he returned to war-torn Sri Lanka rather than Switzerland where his parents have asylum.

But Immigration Minister Quinton Edness confirmed that arrangements were being made to extradite Gophinath to Sri Lanka.

"We don't want to send him anywhere to be killed, obviously,'' he said last week. "He should be able to get the protection of the Sri Lankan authorities.'' Mr. Edness also pointed out that there were discrepancies in Gophinath's story.

But Ms Junos on Friday said Amnesty opposed anyone being returned to a country where he or she would be at risk.

"This gentleman certainly faces execution in Sri Lanka,'' she said. "We have not yet been able to speak to local prosecutors or Immigration about it at any length.'' Noting that the local section had been in contact with the international secretariat and were awaiting instructions this morning, she said: "The section can get involved in a refugee case. It is part of the mandate.'' She described a person at risk as one who might face imprisonment as a prisoner of conscience, torture, "disappearance'', or execution.

And she said in cases where there is potential for refoulement -- the repatriation of refugees to their home countries -- Amnesty will try to assess the situation.

"When there are time constraints Amnesty still takes a stand against their return until conditions have been set to confirm their story,'' she explained.

Ms Junos emphasised that Amnesty does not necessarily oppose refoulement for people who it has not interviewed or were not familiar with their cases.

AI will call for the claims to be fully investigated or request the individual have contact with a lawyer or other advisory body, she explained.

Amnesty might also call on the local authorities to send the person to a third country which will not forcibly repatriate him or her.

Local sections of Amnesty International are forbidden from taking part directly in local protests about local issues but can gather information for the secretariat.

The human rights watchdog was instrumental in the campaign against Apartheid-era South Africa and ongoing issues of female genital mutilation, extra-judiciary detention and genocide.

Sri Lanka is a member of the British Commonwealth and United Nations and became independent in 1949.

Its ethnic mix has made it a diverse, but troubled nation with the government dominated by the Sinhalese who make up almost 75 percent of the population.

Tamils are the largest minority and are about 14 percent of the population of nearly 18 million people.

It became a republic in 1974 and has had a civil war for more than 15 years between the Government and at least two Tamil led opposition groups.

Amnesty acknowledges human rights abuses on both sides, including terrorist bombing campaigns -- one of which was of such great concern that the Sri Lankan leg of the 1996 World Cup was boycotted by the West Indies and Australian cricket teams.

Eliza Mann of the Tamil Centre for Human Rights in London described the record of human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.

"The TCHR believes the rule of law is not for Tamil people in Sri Lanka,'' Ms Mann told The Royal Gazette "If a state has no borders like the island of Sri Lanka,'' she continued.

"People who want to leave have no recourse but to try illegal methods. Not all get out with legitimate documents.'' She said recently a Sinhalese MP had desperately contacted Tamil organisations for help in escaping government persecution.

"Even 40,000 Sinhalese soldiers want to get out and are being watched,'' she said.

Ms Mann said thousands of people had been detained and some had faced two to three years in jail before facing a magistrate.

Another London-based Sri Lankan human rights campaigner said in the last week more than 1,200 Tamils had been detained by army, Police, or paramilitary units.

Varadakumar Vairamuttu of the Tamil Information Centre in London said: "These arrests take place in waves.

"If someone arrives without adequate identity papers they would be arrested at the airport,'' he said. "That has happened before. There has been torture, extortion, long detention, and even in certain cases execution.'' Mr. Vairamuttu described Switzerland as once sympathetic to the plight of Sri Lankan refugees, but it had changed its attitude.

"Switzerland has even recently signed a contract with the Sri Lankan government for the repatriation of Tamils who have lost their claims to live there,'' he said.

"There have been large numbers of arrests at the airports of deported people.'' Amnesty International reported that thousands of Tamils were arrested last year and "around 1,600 were detained without charge or trial, 600 of them for more than a year''.

At least 220 Tamil civilians were reported to have "disappeared'' and an estimated 50 others were extrajudicially executed according to the 1997 Amnesty International Report.

Amnesty even published a report titled "Sri Lanka: A wavering commitment to human rights'' which acknowledged progress in the human rights record but still expressed "grave concern''.

IMMIGRATION IMM