Police claim only 50 were detained, but NGOs find it impossible to ascertain the number held in mass round-ups. Four youths who were in possession of documents with a Tiger insignia, downloaded from the Internet, were detained for alleged Tiger propaganda abroad. Reports say detentions had not been brought to the notice of the Human Rights Commission despite requirements under Presidential directives.
Four Tamils were arrested on 23 October in Negombo, 20 miles north of Colombo. Modera area in north Colombo was surrounded by security forces on 31 October and 75 Tamils were detained. Tamil MP TV Sennan says that a number of Tamil youths from the Hill Country have been detained without assigning any reason. Seventeen Hill Country youths working in shops at Veyangoda were taken into custody in early October. Tamil youths were also detained in Kandy, Matale and Hangurankette.
The Supreme Court awarded in October Rs 100,000 compensation in a fundamental rights case of Tamil trader Ratnasabapathy Mohanadas who was detained and tortured by the security forces. The case illustrates the difficulties Tamils face in Colombo, NGOs say.
The Crimes Detection Bureau (CDB) arrested Mr Mohanadas in March 1996 and held him incommunicado for three months. He was neither informed of the reasons for the arrest nor a receipt issued to relatives acknowledging detention as required by law.
Mr Mohanadas was hung by his legs and tortured. His eye sight is affected after his head was covered with a plastic bag dipped in petrol. A confession had been obtained from him against his will, written in the Sinhala language which he does not understand. The police had filed several cases against him based on the confession.
Batticaloa farmer Parameswaran Navaratnam alleges that soldiers tied him to a jeep and dragged him to the Kommathurai Army camp in Batticaloa District, after shooting him in the leg. At the camp he suffered brutal torture for three days. Mullaitivu resident Kalimuthu Krishnaveni, currently at Colombo’s Welikade prison was arrested at Vavuniya on a visit to see her mother. She was produced before a Magistrate only after six months.
Danish Tamil David Jesudasan who came to Sri Lanka after 16 years to see his parents after the Danish government declaration that conditions in Sri Lanka had improved, was arrested on 14 October in a Kotahena lodge while awaiting security clearance and an air ticket to travel to Jaffna.