Tamil man abducted while EU team is in Sri Lanka to probe rights record

A war affected Tamil man was forcefully abducted in Eastern Sri Lanka allegedly by plain clothed terror police. This abduction has taken place while a top European Union team is visiting the island nation to monitor and assess its human rights situation, which will decide the fate of the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP+) concession that grants privileged access to the european market.

Manoharadas Subash (39) was abducted forcefully around 6 AM on Tuesday (28) from his home in the eastern coastal town of Trincomalee by posse of plainclothes police from the feared ‘terror police’ his family told media persons.

Military rehabilitation

According to family members their house was rounded up in the morning while two police persons forcefully entered the house asking him to accompany them.

“He was released only after two years of rehabilitation programme by the government. We did not allow him to go, but we were threatened with rifles being pointed at us and he was forcefully taken away” his wife told media persons.

“When asked for the reason they said there is some suspicion and will be released only after inquiry”.

His whereabouts is not known till the publication of this story. While it was told to the family by the persons who forcefully took him away that he is being taken to the Uppuveli police station, the police there denied any knowledge of such a person being in their custody.

The family has now approached the human rights commission office in Trincomalee.

“We should know why he was taken and demand he should be returned immediately”.

Subash’s mother told journalists that the police persons appear to be from the TID as they were in civilian clothes.

GSP+

There has been an increasing trend in war affected Tamil people being intimidated and taken into custody or summoned for questioning by the police and military since Gotabhaya Rajapaksa came to power in November 2019.

A five member European Union team is in Sri Lanka to probe and assess the human rights situation in the country. Their monitoring will focus on Sri Lanka's compliance with 27 international conventions covering human rights, labour, environment and governance.

The visit comes after Sri Lanka faced flak from the European Union parliament on its gross human rights violation and at a time when the country’s president invited the diaspora Tamil community to come forward to work with the government.

© JDS