Mr Saravanamuttu says that the new Emergency regulations restricting freedom of expression and granting greater powers to the security forces have deepened fears. As fighting escalates in the north, security forces are expected to intensify cordon and search operations in Colombo and other parts of the south.
In late May, President Chandrika appointed a nine-member committee headed by Justice minister GL Peiris to ensure the safety of Tamils in southern Sri Lanka. This Inter-Racial Committee on Ethnic Harmony has appointed a sub-committee headed by minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle to prepare an action plan.
An LTTE suspect, arrested in Colombo’s Bambalapitiya suburb on 13 May, attempted to commit suicide by taking cyanide. Three other suspects were also arrested in the area. Following their interrogation, a young Tamil millionaire in Kotahena suburb was taken into custody on allegations that he funded the Tigers. Police detained Batticaloa resident K Sarumathy in late May at Wattala, five miles north of Colombo, where she worked in a textile mill. Security forces searched Sea Street and Kathiresan Street in Pettah commercial district on 30 May and questioned over 500 people. Twenty young Tamil men and ten women were arrested.
Three Tamils, including Subramaniam Panchalingam from Vavuniya, arrested by unidentified persons in a white van on 27 May, were later found at the Bambalapitiya police station. The whereabouts of S Karunakaran and A Satheeskumar from Vavuniya, arrested in a lodge at Kotahena, are unknown. The Human Rights Commission says another Vavuniya resident M Krishnarajah who went missing when he went to Colombo was later found in a Gampaha police station. A family residing in a Kotahena lodge went missing in May. According to the HRC, one member of the family, A Arulananthan is held at the Kotahena police station. His wife and two children aged two years and 18 months are at the Mt Lavinia police station.
On 23 May, the Committee of Inquiry into Undue Arrest and Harassment (CIUAH) issued summons on the Director of the police Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) to explain delays in filing cases against Tamils detained under Emergency regulations and the PTA. The order was made after the Attorney General’s Department (AG) revealed in May that the TID has not submitted reports on over 315 Tamils arrested in 1998 and 1999. The AG’s Department says it is unable to file cases without the TID reports.