The Sri Lankan government is using anti-terrorism laws to muzzle journalists who expose rights abuses and corruption, or question the government?s handling of the civil war, a US-based human rights group said yesterday.

Human Rights Watch said the closure last month of Standard Newspapers Ltd., which published papers in Sinhalese and English, the freezing of its assets and the detention of a company official since February, were abuses of the sweeping powers granted in the country?s anti-terrorism act. The government cited suspected links to the Tamil Tiger rebels. ?The government is using anti-terrorism legislation to silence the press,? Sam Zarifi, Asia research director for Human Rights Watch, was quoted as saying in a statement on the group?s Web site, www.hrw.org.

?As the war heats up, the government is clamping down on criticism and dissent?. The Tamil Tigers, known officially as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), are fighting for an independent homeland in the north and east of the country. Around 68,000 people have been killed since 1983. Fighting has intensified in the past year with no end in sight, leaving a 2002 ceasefire agreement in tatters. Ethnic Tamil-language media had often come under government pressure, but the closure of Standard Newspapers? Mawbima on March 29 was the first time the authorities had shut down a Sinhalese-language newspaper, Human Rights Watch said.

?The government?s moves against Mawbima are a disturbing blow to press freedom in Sri Lanka,? Zarifi said in the statement. ?Increasingly, critics of government policy are being treated as traitors and enemies of the state.? The Free Media Movement, a Sri Lankan group advocating freedom of the press, says the situation is getting worse.