Mr Chandrasekaran also referred to the problems faced by Hill Country Tamils as a result of security measures in southern Sri Lanka. Kandy Municipal Council member S Malarchelvan says Tamils in Kandy’s Mahaiyawa suburb are being continuously harassed by the police. He has appealed to Kandy Mayor Harindra Dunuville to intervene with the security authorities.
Many Hill Country Tamils, more particularly those living and working on tea and rubber plantations, lack national identity cards (NIC) as a result of delays by the Department of Registration and this leads to arrest and other problems. The World Bank says the ‘mobility and access to economic opportunities of many estate workers are constrained due to language barriers, social status or lack of national identity cards’. Reports say that the People’s Bank in Ragala is refusing to grant loans to Hill Country Tamils who lack NICs.
Tamils detained in the south and released, often lack identity documents to remain in Colombo or travel to the north-east. Colombo Tamil newspaper Virakesari reports about a young man who was arrested in 1995 when he came to the capital to go abroad. Security authorities took possession of his passport and NIC. A case was filed against him only in 1998. He was released in July, after the case was withdrawn. But the police have refused to return his documents and he is unable to go out of his residence and lives in fear of arrest.
The concern over conditions of detention remains. The June 2000 report of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture titled Caught in the middle: A study of Tamil torture survivors coming to the UK from Sri Lanka, describes the harrowing experiences of prisoners. Detainees were routinely hit by guards and some forced to give blood for transfusion. One person had been used for a medical experiment without consent and others were detained alone in a dark cell underground.
The Medical Foundation says that the most disturbing among allegations were repeated reports of sexual abuse of male detainees, because of the effect it had on them. Detainees described being repeatedly raped and made to perform other sexual acts by soldiers. Press reports say that a boy was admitted to Manthikai hospital in Jaffna’s Vadamaratchy area after being sexually assaulted on 1 September by two soldiers from the Kudanthanai military base .