Deputy Inspector General of Police DMPB Dissanayake says police carried out a major search operation in the capital on 17 April on information that many Tigers had entered Colombo. Some 900 lodges, many providing cheap accommodation, were checked. Police detained 114 LTTE suspects. According to Colombo newspaper The Island, earlier, 8,000 were arrested and released. Police say there are Tiger suspects among the 75 people detained in Wellampitiya and Welikada suburbs on 26 April.
Over 100 Tamils arrested in Jaffna last year and detained for several months were released in April after the Attorney General decided that there was lack of evidence of LTTE links. In late April another 50 young men and women detained for the last four months at the Kankesanthurai Army camp in Jaffna were brought to the Anuradhapura prison. Many arrested in Jaffna are still held in the Colombo Magazine prison.
The authorities continue to breach Emergency regulations in arrest and detention of suspects. Trader Velupillai Yugarajah, 45, arrested on 26 March, has neither been informed of the reasons for his arrest nor a receipt issued to his relatives as required by the Presidential directives under Emergency regulations.
Many held in custody allege torture. In a fundamental rights application to the Supreme Court, S Ganesh, 18, currently held in Colombo Magazine prison says he was tortured at a police station. The Court has ordered a medical examination. Egamparam Nirmalanathan, 18, arrested in Batticaloa on 27 October also alleges that he was subject to severe torture at the Kurumanveli STF camp.
Navaratnam Rajakumar in Kalutara prison alleges that he underwent severe torture at the Vavuniya Counter Subversive Unit (CSU) after his arrest on 31 October. His head was covered with a plastic bag dipped in petrol as he was punched and kicked. Kumaru Selvaratnam who runs a tutory in Colombo arrested on 28 March underwent three operations as a result of torture at the Slave Island police station.
Sinnathamby Theivanai and her husband were arrested on 6 September by the Polonnaruwa police. Theivanai was produced before courts only on 21 November and is currently held under a detention order at the Welikada prison. She says that officers of the Crime Detection Bureau (CDB) threatened her with torture and hung her husband by his feet and tortured him in her presence. Theivanai’s two year-old daughter is also in prison with her.