In April, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture expressed concern over continuing torture in Sri Lanka. The Rapporteur says that persons arrested on suspicion of being a member of the LTTE are being tortured and unauthorised places of detention, specially in Jaffna and Vavuniya, continue to be used.
Prisoners held here are allegedly beaten, administered electric shocks, have petrol poured on their back and lit and are bitten by dogs on their private parts. The Rapporteur further says torture is committed with impunity and despite the enactment of the Torture Act in 1995, no one has been convicted.
A Batticaloa court released Anthony Krishnaveni, 22, in April, following the evidence of the government Judicial Medical Officer (JMO). The confession on which the case against her was based, had been obtained under torture. After her arrest in September 1998, she was repeatedly tortured, which included beating on the head with a cricket bat.
Evidence was also produced that a confession was extracted under torture from another Batticaloa resident T Prabhakaran, 20. According to the JMO, chillie powder applied to his eyes has impaired his sight. His head was covered with a plastic bag dipped in petrol and his toe nails were pulled out.
Security in urban centres in southern Sri Lanka was tightened in the run-up to the Tamil-Sinhala New Year on 12 April and May Day and Tamil arrests continued. During a search operation in Kandy on 8 April, eight Plantation Tamil youths were taken into custody. Two days later, two Tamil women were detained.
Many Tamils were rounded-up in Ja-Ela, 12 miles north of Colombo, on 9 April, in a search of lodges and houses and 17, including seven women were detained. Fifteen Tamils, including a 14 year-old girl were detained in Colombo’s Kotahena suburb on 27 April.
Colombo MP R Yogarajan condemned the issue of new police registration forms to Tamil residents in some areas of Colombo in April. Earlier, the IGP had accepted that registration is not mandatory under Emergency regulations. Following Mr Yogarajan’s protest, the police agreed to withdraw the forms.
The Department of Registration has rejected 3,000 applications for National Identity Cards (NIC) of Tamils in Udapussellawa, 12 miles north-east of Nuwara Eliya. The Department is refusing to accept birth cards issued by estates in place of Birth Certificates. A large number of Plantation Tamils are without NICs and their freedom of movement, therefore, is restricted.