The prisoners told visiting MPs that prison officers attacked them with batons and metal rods and tore up all their books. They say they gave up the fast after guards forcibly thrust bread into their mouths.
Currently 540 are held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and over 1,000 under Emergency regulations. Tamils arrests continue every day. Ports Development minister MHM Ashraff says arbitrary arrests in Colombo will not help government attempts to win the hearts and minds of the Tamil people.
Mr Ashraff who summoned a high-level conference on 13 November in Colombo, requested the police, the Crimes Detection Bureau (CDB) and the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) to inform the Ports Authority if Tamils working in Colombo port are arrested.
As Mr Ashraff addressed the security officers, over 60 Tamils were rounded-up in Kotahena suburb and taken away in lorries despite producing all the necessary identity documents. Six days earlier over 150 Tamils were arrested at Modera in north Colombo and 57 were detained. Vavuniya refugee S Selvananthini who returned from Colombo after a visa interview at the Canadian High Commission was arrested and held at the Mt Lavinia police station from 25 September. Her mother has also been taken into custody.
Over 100 Tamil young men and women were rounded-up in Kochchikade on 20 November. Five days later ten Tamils from 4th Cross Street in Pettah were arrested. Fifteen Tamils were detained in Maligawatta on the same day. A large number of Tamils were also arrested in other southern areas such as Gampola, Matale, Panadura and Kandy.
Police believe Tiger cadre are hidden among the Colombo Tamil community ready to launch attacks on high-profile targets. LTTE member Anthoymuthu Nandakumar took cyanide and committed suicide when police attempted to arrest him in Mattakuliya on 25 November. Following the incident 35 Tamils in the area were arrested.
Abuse of Tamils in custody continues. Colombo-based Forum for Human Dignity says that Tamil women suspects in Welikade prison are being sexually abused. Seevaratnam Sivarajah who had been arrested on 14 October in Vavuniya and held at the Mt Lavinia police station on allegations of conspiracy to blow-up the Ratmalana airbase, died in hospital on 31 October. He had been admitted to the hospital the previous day. Tamil MP Joseph Pararajasingham suspects that Sivarajah died as a result of torture and has demanded a full enquiry in a letter to President Chandrika.