Police say the LTTE continues to infiltrate Colombo and other southern areas and necessary action must be taken to protect life and property. Most of the people detained are released within 48 hours, but because of the arbitrary nature of the arrests it is difficult to determine how many are further detained.
According to the police, an LTTE cadre committed suicide by taking cyanide when attempts were made to arrest him at a lodge in Colombo’s Pettah suburb in early February. The owner of the lodge was taken into custody. Alleged Tiger spy Raman Rajan was arrested at Passara in the Hill Country in mid-February. His uncle S Sellathurai who gave him refuge was also detained. Another alleged LTTE cadre Prakash Rajah was arrested in a Pettah lodge in mid-February.
Three people were detained after an electricity transformer was blasted at Colombo’s Maradana suburb on 4 February. The following day, the police found an explosive on another transformer at Grandpass suburb. Fourteen people were arrested. Since January, six transformers have been bombed in the capital. Three Tamils who went to Anuradhapura on 26 February to see relatives in detention were also arrested.
Torture in custody continues to remain a major problem. Tamil trader M Jeganathan, 46, and M Masilamani, 52, were released by the Badulla High Court in January after evidence of torture was confirmed by the government Judicial Medical Officer. They were arrested in June 1997 in Demodara. The torture methods included assault with plastic pipes and batons, burning with cigarettes and covering the head with plastic bags dipped in petrol. Confessions were extracted from them under threat of torture. Jaffna resident Somasundaram Sivanesan, 42, says in a fundamental rights application to the Supreme Court that after arrest in October 1997 by the police Counter Subversive Unit (CSU), he was brutally assaulted and nails were inserted into the soles of his feet.
Complaint has been made to the Committee of Inquiry into Undue Arrest and Detention (CIUAD) that shop attendant Shanmugam Mahendrarajan was arrested by the Army at Wellawatte suburb on 11 February. No reasons were given for the arrest. Relatives have also informed CIUAD that asylum-seeker Rajendram Amirtharaj, deported from Germany in October last year and arrested in Colombo, has disappeared. The police claim that Mr Amirtharaj was released after enquiry.