Tamil detainees across island join hunger strike

Around 100 jailed Tamil prisoners have joined a hunger strike launched on Thursday, demanding either immediate court action or to be released.

The detainees include 50 being held in Vavuniya prison, 20 held in Kalutara prison and 30 in Colombo Remand Prison.

They joined another group of 80 prisoners who started their hunger strike earlier this week, with many of the detainees having been held without charge for several years.

The group earlier told the BBC that even though the armed conflict was over, "nothing has been done to expedite our legal process".

See our earlier post: Tamil detainees launch hunger strike (18 May 2012)

Add new comment

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button