PTA detention

AS the ceasefire between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE was extended for another month, human rights activists expressed concern over the fate of some 1,700 Tamils held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in prisons, detention centres, police stations and Army camps. Many of them are held without charge or trial. In early January, Chief Justice Sarath Silva urged the Attorney General to expedite the cases against 600 Tamils detained in Kalutara, Anuradhapura, Kandy, and Welikada prisons. Over 120 detainees in Kalutara prison wrote to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe in late January urging him to take the necessary steps for them to be charged or released. As the Sri Lankan President issued orders to release 2,500 convicted criminals in the run-up to Independence Day celebrations, 473 Tamil detainees in several prisons began a hunger strike on 1 February, demanding release. Over 550 people held under the Immigrants and Emigrants Act in Negombo prison also launched a hunger strike on the same day.

Allegations of torture in security force custody continue to be made. On 7 January, the Supreme Court ordered the government to pay Rs 40,000 compensation to torture victim Gopalapillai Jegatheeswaran. He was arrested in July 2001 in Vavuniya and suffered severe torture at the hands of the police Counter Subversive Unit (CSU). The High court released Batticaloa resident Baliah Pathmanathan in early January. He had been arrested under the PTA in connection with the LTTE attack on the Kandy Buddhist shrine Dalada Maligawa in January 1998. The main evidence against him was a confession obtained in custody. The court released him after the Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) confirmed that he had suffered torture while in detention.

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