The CIUAH is concerned over continuing round-ups of Tamils and police failure to issue receipts to relatives on arrests. CIUAH Chairman Lakshman Jayakody says appropriate measures have not been taken on his request to the Defence Ministry to appoint more Tamil police officers.
Security in the capital was tightened in the run-up to Black July. Sri Lankan intelligence services said in July that the LTTE had slipped a ten-member Black Tiger squad into the capital to assassinate President Chandrika and other senior politicians. A bomb exploded at 11pm on 27 July at the Colombo central bus stand, but caused no damage.
The police arrested 30 Tamil youths at the Fort railway station on 8 July. In the two days that followed, the police and the Army jointly searched many areas of the city and detained over 100 young Tamil men and women. Seventeen Tamils were taken into custody at Fort and Maradana on 14 July. The police also detained a number of Tamils at Kandy and Matale in the Hill Country.
The Supreme Court ordered the release of Jaffna resident Piraisoody Sasikaran, 22, on 22 July. Mr Sasikaran was arrested in November last year. In a fundamental rights application to the court, he had alleged illegal arrest and detention.
In late July, the Jaffna magistrate court held an enquiry into the death of Anton Gunasingham in military custody in September last year. The government Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) said in his evidence that Mr Gunasingham had been tortured and there were 23 lacerations, bruises and cigarette burns on his body. Three soldiers face murder charges over his death.