Arrests and roundups continue in Colombo
Reaping the whirlwind
THE alleged LTTE train bomber Savarimuthu Loganathan was produced by the
police at a press conference in Colombo on 3 September. Over 70 people were
killed by bombs on a train at Dehiwela on 24 July.
Loganathan had been arrested in a Tiger safe house in Dehiwela on 1 September.
Arms and ammunition were also found. Police say Loganathan has confessed and
on his information more arms were recovered in another safe house in Puttalam.
Ten other suspects were arrested from the two houses.
Police suspect LTTE activists are hidden among the 150,000 Tamil refugees in the
capital. Observers say the fall of Kilinochchi may trigger Tiger attacks in
Colombo. A major search operation was launched on 4 September and over 80
Tamils were taken into custody.
LTTE agent Columbus has also been arrested. Police say he has confessed to
hiding weapons in three places in the capital. Columbus’ wife and seven year-old
child have also been detained.
Tamil MPs and human rights agencies say many innocent Tamils are arrested in
search operations in Colombo and other southern areas. In a fundamental rights
application to the Supreme Court, Colombo resident and bank employee V
Satchithananthan says he was arrested after the July train bomb and detained for
a day without assigning any reason. He refused to sign a pre-prepared confession
in the Sinhala language. Confidential information about his bank account had been
passed on to the police.
Hill Country youth Kandasamy Thiyagarajah, currently in Colombo’s Magazine
prison began a fast on 18 September demanding his release. He worked in a
Bambalapitiya restaurant and was arrested in March 1995. Mr Thiyagarajah says
that after a habeas corpus application was filed in the Court of Appeal on his
behalf, he was forced to sign a confession to justify his detention.
Tamil MP Joseph Pararajasingham says in a letter to President Chandrika that the
lives of the 76 Tamils arrested in Jaffna and currently held in Magazine and
Kalutara prisons will be endangered if they are taken to Anuradhapura for their
case. When 47 of the detainees were produced in Anuradhapura on 20 September,
crowds outside the court demanded their death. The MP says the 76 youths have
been detained by police for over three months and confessions extracted from
them under torture.
Manipay bakery owner S Sivalingam in his fundamental rights application from
Magazine prison says he was arrested on 7 July at Uduvil and tortured at the
Nadeswara College Army camp for two days. Colombo trader S Bastiampillai, 59,
is held at the dreaded 6th Floor of the police headquarters. He has neither been
informed of the reasons for the detention nor produced before a court.
Next article.
Back to Sri Lanka Monitor Index page.
Back to The Refugee Council Welcome
page.