As the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan condemned the attack on civilians, eight Tamils, including the owner of the bomb vehicle K Subathradevi, were arrested in Batticaloa and taken to Colombo. With increasing pressure in the northern Vanni Army operation Jayasikurui, the LTTE may launch more attacks in Colombo and other southern areas, observers say.
In Colombo, search operations and arbitrary detention of Tamils, sometimes purely on the basis that they are Tamils, continue. NGOs estimate that 10,000 Tamils were rounded-up in March and early April in the Colombo suburbs Maradana, Kotahena, Pettah, Modera, Fort, Wellawatte and in Mount Lavinia and Dehiwala. Although most arrested are released within 72 hours, human rights agencies are unable to determine how many are detained further, because of the nature of the round-ups.
TULF MP R Sampanthan told Parliament in early March that Emergency regulations requiring issue of receipts and information to relatives about the place of detention are never followed. Mr Sampanthan accused the security forces of continuing harassment of Tamils in Colombo. Deputy Defence minister Anuruddha Ratwatte, conceding that “mistakes” are being made, has pledged strong action against those involved in harassment.
Forty three Tamil asylum-seekers returned from Russia were arrested at a Colombo checkpoint on 10 March. They were released later, following the intervention of EPDP leader Douglas Devananda. Negombo courts released 158 people who were detained after being returned from Senegal in February, on bail on 17 March. Another 31 are still in custody. Twenty nine Sri Lankans returned from Romania last month, arrested at the Colombo airport and held at the Mirihana detention centre, were released on 13 March by the Fort magistrate on Rs 10,000 bail each. An Amparai resident remains in custody.
Asylum-seeker Manickam Rajan, deported from the Netherlands in February, was arrested on 21 March in a lodge in Kollupitiya suburb. Colombo human rights agencies say appeals by an officer from the Dutch embassy in Colombo who visited the police station were ignored by police. Another deportee from the Netherlands, Edirmanasingham Jeyavel was also detained on 21 March by the police.