Mr Devananda visited the prison after 48 prisoners began a fast on 24 June demanding trial or release. After requesting inmates in three prison sections to abandon the fast, Mr Devananda entered Section B where he was surrounded and attacked with iron rods and knives. Attorney-at-Law Maheswary Velayutham who accompanied him was briefly held prisoner but was unharmed.
An Assistant Prison Superintendent was suspended on the orders of President Chandrika, press reports say. EPDP officials believe that the assault was preplanned by LTTE cadre among the Tamil prisoners. Fifteen detainees suspected of involvement are under interrogation. In a letter to President Chandrika, Jaffna MP N Rameswaran says the attack on Mr Devananda is the culmination of frustration resulting from government’s failure to fulfil its pledge to expedite cases against detainees. The EPDP has urged the government not to use the incident to justify prolonged detention of Tamils.
Detention of Tamils in southern Sri Lanka continues. A new organisation, the Terrorist Investigation Department (TID), has been added to the plethora of police and intelligence agencies. Human rights agencies allege that an illegal detention centre has been set up at Malalasekera Mawatha in Colombo.
The Peliyagoda area, west of Colombo, was searched in early June and a number of people detained. Fifty people were arrested in Pettah suburb on 17 June. Over 100 Tamils were rounded-up in Ratnapura on 20 June after an electricity transformer was blasted.
In June, the Supreme Court awarded compensation to Mannar resident T Ranjani, arrested by police on 26 November and tortured in custody. In another fundamental rights application, Hill Country youth Christopher Solomon says, following his arrest in Kandy on 17 April, he was assaulted by police and forced to sign a confession. Ninety five people returned from Senegal in March and detained were released by the Negombo court on 25 June. Reports say the government plans to introduce new legislation to punish those who are returned from abroad after leaving the country illegally.
Utrecht University’s Dr C Pathmamanoharan and his Dutch wife, on a visit to Sri Lanka, were harassed and finger-printed when they went to register with the Welikada police on 20 May. Dr Pathmamanoharan lives in Holland since 1971 and is a Dutch national. He was unable to contact the Dutch embassy in Colombo on the telephone number claimed by the Dutch government as a special number for those in difficulty. Dutch journalists who tried also failed to reach the embassy on the number. Mr Pathmamanoharan says he and his wife were finger-printed for the reason that he is a Tamil and dreads to think of the plight of asylum-seekers who are currently being returned from Netherlands under an agreement with Sri Lanka.