Abductions continue in Colombo
Unidentified persons
FRUIT stall owner V Saravanamuthu and his employee S Nagulesvaran were abducted in the Colombo suburbs by unidentified persons in a white van on 17 April. Reports say following inquiries by Human Rights Task Force (HRTF), the two Tamils were handed over by the Army to the police.
Colombo lawyer A Vinayagamurthy says that their abduction was a clear violation of human rights and a breach of the presidential directives on arrests. Under the directives, relatives must be informed of arrests and receipts issued. Following a number of complaints of harassment and illegal arrests, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Dharmadasa Silva warned police officers at a meeting in early May not to abuse their powers.
Every day, hundreds of Tamils are screened at checkpoints or by major security sweeps of the capital seeking Tiger suicide squads who destroy high profile targets with increasing regularity. An attempt to destroy Colombo harbour was foiled in early April.
Colombo police chief Dissanayake says 174 Tamils were detained in a 24-hour security sweep of the city in mid-April. Speaking in Parliament MP Joseph Pararajasingham said that 1,100 Tamil youths are in custody, 300 of them for over four years without trial. He also alleges that confessions are being extracted from detainees under torture. The Court of Appeal will hear habeas corpus applications in respect of over 20 Tamils in custody including M Baskaran, 21, who is alleged to have been tortured at the Kallady Army camp in Batticaloa.
Seven Tamil women LTTE suspects in the Colombo Welikade prison were attacked by other inmates on 12 April. Prison officers say the women will be transferred to a safer prison in Kandy. The attack is the second on Tamil prisoners in the last two months.
Sailors on patrol brutally assaulted a Tamil youth on 1 April at Hultsdorp and tore up his identity card. Indian national M Rajendran arrested by police in Wellawatte was released by the Mt Lavinia court in early April for lack of evidence. Eight people who came from Batticaloa to visit their sons at the Colombo Magazine prison were taken into custody at a Maradana lodge on 6 April. Following the intervention of Mr Pararajasingham they were released. Their sons had been arrested when they came to Colombo for an interview.
On 4 April, a soldier opened fire at the car of Navy chief Mohan Samarasekera believing that a Tiger suicide squad was at the gates of the Defence Ministry. Deputy Defence Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte told Parliament on 9 April that the government was aware of LTTE plans to strike at Colombo and other areas in the south to create an ethnic backlash. Following LTTE's harbour attack on 12 April, security forces destroyed the huts of 500 families in coastal areas of Modera and Wattala.
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