The prisoners allege that on 8 August, guards searched the prison wards and removed their belongings such as tooth brush, tooth paste, plastic cans and soap. Even their medicines were taken away. The Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission earlier reported, after inspection of the prison, that detainees were not being provided adequate medicines and medical facilities. On 10 August, flowering plants outside the wards were uprooted to prevent the detainees using flowers for worship. sports activities have been suspended.
Accommodation is cramped and 50 prisoners are held in each ward 800 sq ft in extent. The roofs leak during rains and repairs have not been carried out. Letters to the detainees are given to them only on Sundays. They complain that they are provided unclean water for drinking and cooked rice supplied to them contains pebbles. Tea is not provided regularly.
Kalutara detainees also say that when taken for court cases to Anuradhapura, 125 miles north-east, they are not allowed toilet time during the journey of 10 to 12 hours. Court cases drag on for months and sometimes years. S Rasan, arrested at Batticaloa in October 1999 and held in Kalutara, has been produced before courts on eight occasions.
In a letter to President Chandrika in August, Trincomalee resident Chandra Mathiyalagan says her husband was arrested in 1995 and suffered severe torture at the hands of the security forces. He was later released. He was taken into custody again in October 1999 and has been produced before courts 12 times, but without any progress in the case.
Four Tamil youths have written to the Committee of Inquiry into Undue Arrest and Harassment (CIUAH) saying that cases against them have been filed in Anuradhapura and Vavuniya, although they were arrested and detained in Jaffna. Relatives spend large sums of money and undergo severe difficulties in obtaining travel permits, to attend the cases.
According to Sri Lanka’s Home for Human Rights (HHR), ten cases were filed against Kalikutty Karunakaran who was arrested in Amparai in November 1997. The confession evidence of the prosecution was rejected in one of the cases by the High Court, because the confession had been extracted under torture. Although he was acquitted he was not released. Another case began in October 2000. The rejected confession is the main evidence in this case too. Mr Karunakaran may be held for many years until all the cases based on the confession are heard. HHR says he will never receive justice in Sri Lanka.
Over 500 Tamils were rounded-up on 12 August in Colombo. All were released after enquiry. Press reports say that a large number of Hill Country Tamil youths have not returned for work in Colombo fearing arrest, following the LTTE attack on Katunayake airport.
Arrests also continued in the Hill Country. Nagarasa Nagalingam was taken into custody on Queenstown Estate in Badulla District in mid-August. Amparai resident Velupillai Ganeshamurthy and his wife Devaki were arrested on 22 August at Badulla.
According to Colombo Tamil newspaper Virakesari, three Tamil women detained in Negombo prison under the Immigrants and Emigrants Act, were injured in an attack by Sinhalese prisoners on 29 August. The prison authorities have not taken any steps to hold an enquiry into the incident.
The CIUAH has summoned the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to answer allegations of torture in police stations. Press reports say that between January and August, 444 fundamental rights cases were filed in the Supreme Court, most from Tamils alleging torture in custody. According to the ICRC, 1,700 Tamils are currently held by the government as LTTE suspects.
In a fundamental rights application in early August, Jaffna University student Krishnasamy Thivyan says when arrested by the Army on 2 July, he was not given any reason. His relatives and the Human Rights Commission were not informed. His hands were tied behind his back and he was beaten with guns. He was then taken to the Urelu military camp, where he was stripped and repeatedly beaten with batons. He also alleges that his pubic hair was pulled with a device.
Businessman M Shanker says in a fundamental rights application that he was arrested on 4 July and suffered torture at Urelu Army camp. He was repeatedly beaten and burned with cigarettes. In August, the Supreme Court awarded Rs 25,000 ($280) compensation to Mannar resident A Dilipkumar, who had suffered torture in police custody.
In 1994, the Convention Against Torture Act made torture a punishable offence. Since then the Supreme Court has awarded compensation in many cases and has urged the government to file cases against the perpetrators. No one has so far been convicted in Sri Lanka for the crime of torture, although the government claims that cases have been filed against several security force members.