Escape from Lucky House
HUMAN RIGHTS agency Amnesty International appealed to the Sri Lankan government in early September to take decisive action to end persistent use of unauthorised places of detention, particularly by armed Tamil groups opposed to the LTTE. The practice by the security forces to allow Tamil groups to carry out search operations and screen civilians often lead to illegal arrests, prolonged detention and torture, disappearances and extrajudicial executions, according to Amnesty. TELO is said to hold prisoners at camps in Koomankulam, Pandarikulam and Vairavapuliyankulam in Vavuniya District. PLOTE detains people at Kovilkulam and Rambaikulam which is referred to as “Lucky House”. Pararajasingham Kugathasan escaped from Lucky House on 31 August into a nearby church pursued by PLOTE cadre who threatened the priest to hand him over. They were saved by police from a checkpoint in the vicinity. According to Amnesty, Mr Kugathasan had signs of torture all over his body.
Meanwhile, there is concern for Somaratne Rajapakse, who was convicted in the Krishanthy Kumarasamy murder case. He was attacked and wounded on 23 August in prison. At his trial, earlier, Mr Rajapakse stated that he knew of mass graves at Chemmani in Jaffna where 400 bodies of Tamils killed in Army custody were buried. Justice Secretary MS Jayasinghe maintains that Mr Rajapakse sustained minor injuries when prison officers attempted to prevent him swallowing an unlawful letter which was in his possession. But Amnesty International says, Mr Rajapakse appears to have been assaulted after he refused to sign a statement to the effect that he was emotionally disturbed at the time he made the statement about mass graves to the High Court and it was untrue.
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