Those fasting included 63 year-old Veerasamy Yoganathan, who is a father of six children. He says he was arrested in February 1996 in Avissawella and has been produced more than 80 times in court. A confession had been obtained from him by the police under severe torture. Mr Yoganathan says that he prefers death to the prolonged agony.
The fast ended on 15 March after Tamil Congress MP A Vinayagamurthy and N Kandasamy of the Centre for Human Rights and Development persuaded the detainees that the Attorney-General’s Department had assured action for their transfer. On 17 March, lawyers from the AG’s Department visited Kalutara prison to compile details of the detainees for a review of their cases. Chief Justice Sarath N Silva instructed expeditious disposal of PTA cases and ordered the special High Court in Kalutara prison to function till 8.00pm for the purpose.
There was panic among Tamils in Colombo in early March, when police in some areas visited houses, shops, hotels and hostels issuing forms for police registration. The regulations requiring police registration became void in June 2001 with the lapse of Emergency rule. The police headquarters denied issuing any instruction for registration.
But later, Colombo Deputy Inspector General Bodhi Liyanage admitted that forms had been issued. He said that Tamils need not register, if they did want to. Inspector General TE Anandarajah says that new checkpoints in Colombo have been established for security and assured that they will not be permanent.
Jaffna resident Mylvaganam Muralidaran, detained for more than three years after his arrest in Colombo, was released by the Colombo High Court on 17 March. He was accused of providing information to a LTTE hit squad on the movements of Tamil MP and academic Neelan Tiruchelvam, who was killed in the capital by a suicide bomber in July 1999. The court rejected the confession evidence, which had been obtained under torture from Mr Muralidaran.
There have been calls for the strengthening of the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission (HRC) to prevent torture and other human rights violations. But reports say that the HRC is unable to maintain ten of its regional offices because of lack of funds. Last year, the HRC’s budget was slashed by Rs 9 million. This year the Treasury has allocated only Rs 1.6 million although the HRC had requested Rs 40 million ($420,000).