Police file new charges to prolong detention
Hill Country limbo
EIGHT Hill Country Tamil youths held in Kandy Bogambara prison say in a letter to President Chandrika Kumaratunge that they are in detention for several months without access to courts.
The youths, including father of five children Govindaraj Rajah of Ottery Estate in Dickoya allege that they had all been tortured and forced to sign confessions in the Sinhala language which they do not understand. They have not been informed of the reasons for the detention.
A large number of Plantation youth in custody are bitterly disappointed that Hill Country politicians holding high office in government and the trade unions have largely disregarded their plight. After a tour of the plantations, Opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe says Hill Country youth are unable to travel outside their estates because of harassment in the name of security.
Arrests in the Hill Country and other areas of the south continue as police suspect LTTE infiltration. Moses Mary was arrested in Ukkuressa, 8 miles north-west of Kandy in early February. Police say Ms Mary has coded writing on her body and used two passports under false names. Indian national Sadyan Nallarajah was taken into custody in Agalawatte, 15 miles south-east of Kalutara.
Batticaloa MP P Joseph raising a new concern with the Attorney General says the police are filing new charges against Tamil youths released by courts in order to detain them further. Currently a number of people remain in custody for over three years without trial.
Colombo Magazine prison detainee Nallathamby Balachandran says he was arrested in September 1991 in Valaichenai and severely tortured by the Batticaloa police Counter Subversive Unit, using gruesome methods including electric shocks. He was later forced to sign a confession in Sinhala and transferred to Magazine prison in August 1992. As he was about to be released following a court case in late 1994, three new charges were filed against him in August, September and December 1994 on the basis of the confession extracted under torture in 1991.
Senior state counsel Sugatha Gamlath says over 300 cases have been filed in courts and a new court has been set up to expedite the cases, but concedes that prolonged detentions are a problem.
In Colombo arrests continue as police believe Black Tiger suicide bombers are hidden among the 150,000 Tamil refugees in the capital to attack high profile targets. Six people suspected of links with Black Tiger Rajaratnam Ketheeswary who committed suicide in Colombo in January, were arrested in early February. Two tailors alleged to be in possession of Tiger badges were arrested in Negombo on 4 February.
Meanwhile ten agents arrested in connection with the death of Sri Lankan refugees in Greece in December 1996 were allowed Rs 50,000 bail each by Colombo courts in mid-February.
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