Tamils increasingly arrested for failing to justify presence

Hundreds of Tamils across Sri Lanka have been arrested in recent months, as the government gets increasingly mired in the ongoing war with the Liberation Tigers.

Across the country, Tamils are picked up on the grounds of security concerns, mainly for ‘failing to prove their identity.’

In the last two weeks alone, nearly 150 Tamils were arrested across the country, mainly on questionable charges of failing to prove their identity or failing to provide a ‘satisfactory’ reason for their presence in a particular area.

While some of them are released soon after, many disappear into Sri Lanka’s moribund legal system, while some just disappear all together.

In Eravur, 12 Tamils were arrested after a Sri Lankan Army intelligence officer was shot dead in Punnakkudaa area of Eravur last Saturday. M Ibrahim was shot dead while he was riding his motorbike by armed men who followed him on another motorbike.

Twenty Tamil civilians were arrested by the paramilitary Special Task Force (STF) in a cordon and search operation in Eechchantheevu, Vavunatheevu, Batticaloa last Tuesday (18 November). Every house in the area was searched, and contents were subjected to close check. The national identity cards of the residents were checked. The search operation was conducted following the killing of a Sinhalese medical officer in Navatkudaa.

Twenty five Tamil civilians between the ages 16 and 30 were arrested in a cordon and search operation by the STF in Vinayakapuram, Thirukkoayil, Amparai, last Monday (17 November). Students who were among the arrested were not released though they proved their identity as students.

Three Tamil civilians were arrested in a cordon and search operation by the Sri Lanka Navy and police in Puthalam on November 12. While several were taken into custody and later released, these three were detained for further interrogation by the police intelligence unit.

In the southern part of the country, five Tamil youth, originally from Jaffna but working in commercial establishments in Chilaw, were taken into custody last Sunday on charges of failing to prove their identity and of being suspicious.

Twenty four Tamils, including two women, who were all previously from the northeast or upcountry, were taken into custody when the SLA and police cordoned off a prawn farm in Marawila-Lungsima in Chilaw last Wednesday (November 19). The victims were subjected to severe interrogation during the search. Police said they were taken in for questioning and later detained in the police station as they failed to produce their residential certificates. The owner of the prawn farm was also taken into custody later for employing persons without valid residential certificate.

The SLA and police took fourteen Tamil civilians into custody in a lightning cordon and search operation last Saturday on charges that they failed to prove their identity or justify their presence in that location.  The search, covering Obeyasekara area in Rajagiriya, Colombo, targeted mainly Tamils from the northeast and upcountry who had all been working at several business establishments and staying lodges.

The Sri Lankan police assisted by home guards began a dusk to dawn cordon and search operation in Gampaha last Wednesday (19 November), arresting 37 persons, of whom eleven were Tamils working in commercial establishments and other institutions. About ten thousand persons were subjected to interrogation and about one thousand vehicles were also searched during the operation. While the Tamils were detained for ‘failing to justify their stay in the location', most of the others were picked up on outstanding court warrants in criminal cases.

Twenty seven Tamil civilians, including upcountry and north and east residents, majority of them employed in business establishments and other institutions, were taken into custody in a cordon and search operation by the SLA and police in Gampaha last Monday (17 November). Forty-one people were taken in for questioning during the operation, - the remaining 14 were Sinhala absconders who were avoiding arrest in traffic and illicit liquor cases, and all 14 were produced in court. The Tamils continue to be held for ‘further inquiry’.

Four Tamil youths were arrested on 15 November while they were waiting for a bus at the Gampola bus stand. The men, who were waiting to travel back to their estate in Pupuressa were questioned on the basis of their ‘suspicious movements’ at the bus stand and were arrested for failing to provide a satisfactory reason for their presence at the bus stand.

Four Tamil civilians were taken into custody during a cordon and search operation by the SLA and police in Badulla on 9 November. They were among 16 people arrested on the day, but all the others were released straight away.