Tamil political prisoners live in danger of getting killed: MP Suresh

Holding the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa responsible for the killing of two Tamil political prisoners, Jaffna District Parliamentarian of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Suresh K. Premachandran said that thousands of Tamil political prisoners are increasingly “living in danger of getting killed at any moment”.

“Although it is visibly written in all the prison walls that the prison inmates are also human beings, the Tamil prison inmates are not at all considered human beings. They are sadly living in danger of getting killed at any moment,” MP Premachandran has said in Colombo on the eve of the funeral of the second Tamil prisoner, Dilrukshan Mariyadas of Jaffna.

Dilrukshan’s funeral was held in his home town of Pasaiyoor in Jaffna on Saturday (11) amid tight security. Several political leaders, parliamentarians and human rights activists attended the funeral service held at St. Antony’s Church in Jaffna while the state intelligence operatives kept close watch.

He said that the brutal attack on the group of 30 Tamil political prisoners in Vavuniya and the subsequent death of two of them demonstrate well the plight of thousands of Tamil fellow prison inmates held indefinitely without charges in prisons elsewhere in the country.

Dilrukshan was arrested by the military in October 2009 and held in custody without charges. His elderly parents heard of his whereabouts only after he was admitted to the hospital following the attack on the Vavuniya prison inmates late June this year.

Tight security for the funeral

After being brutally attacked by Sri Lankan Security Force personnel and prison guards, thirty six year old Dilrukshan was lying in coma over a month and succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday, August 7 (August 7).

According to legal sources, efforts by the Jaffna police to secure a court order aiming to prevent the large gathering of public and politicians have been rejected by the Jaffna High Court on Friday.

It was barely a month ago that Dilrukshan’s fellow prison inmate Ganeshan Nimalaruban of Nelukulam in Vavuniya succumbed to his injuries sustained in the same attack on the Tamil prisoners in Vavuniya.

“Nimalaruban and Dilrukshan have been killed while few other fellow inmates are still undergoing treatments with their limbs broken in the attack. It is very unfortunate that the government, the judiciary or the relevant ministry have failed in instituting a free and fair investigation into the attack and subsequent death of these Tamil prisoners,” MP Premachandran said.

Cult of impunity will lead to full-scale dictatorship

He said when he took up the issue of the attack on Tamil prisoners in Vavuniya and Anuradhapura at the Consultative Committee Meeting of the relevant ministry in Parliament on Wednesday (11), “a prison official claiming to carry out investigation into the incident has completely denied the fact that the prisoners were attacked repeatedly in Anuradhapura”.  

“These were some of the responses given to us when we took up the issue at the Consultative Committee Meeting. They promised to come up with a report in a week or two and we cannot obviously rely on them,” MP Premachandran told the JDS, adding that these issues should be brought to the attention of the international community and human rights organisations such as Amnesty International.

“Under the prevailing culture of impunity, the military, the government, the President and the Defence Secretary can do anything at their will and get away without being questioned. Allowing such a dangerous situation to prolong further will lead to a full-scale dictatorship in this country,” he said.

Highlighting the need for a sustainable campaign “not only to get the remaining Tamil prison inmates released but also to bring the perpetrators of these murders and crimes before justice”, the Jaffna District MP said that his party is working together with other human rights activists and political leaders such as Mano Ganesan and Dr. Wickramabahu Karunaratne in this regard.

Speaking at the burial site of Dilrukshan on Saturday, several parliamentarians, political party leaders and rights activists have also expressed the similar sentiments and called for mass protest campaigns for the speedy release of the remaining thousands of Tamil prisoners.

Rajapaksa regime is responsible: Mano Ganesan

Commenting on the death of another Tamil prisoner, a leading Colombo-based politician and human rights activist, Mano Ganesan said that Tamil political prisoners Nimalaruban and Dilrukshan faced his death “by way of murder”.

“We hold the government of Sri Lanka responsible for this murder. I state this with all the responsibilities as the leader of the Democratic People’s Front and also as the Convenor of the Civil Monitoring Commission,” he told the JDS in an interview.

He said Dilrukshan was lying in a state of coma and was undergoing treatment at the Ragama hospital with his legs chained to the hospital bed.

“This portrays well how cruel this government is and how cruel this system is against the Tamil political prisoners…..We have seen many white van abductions and extra-judicial killings everywhere in this country, including in Colombo and the government kept saying that the police is conducting investigations. But these murders have taken place within the well-protected prison complex, which is a government entity, and the government cannot come out with such excuses,” he said.

Making a startling revelation, Mano Ganeshan said that a special team was sent from the capital city of Colombo to the northern Vavuniya town with a mission “to mercilessly attack these prisoners engaged in agitation campaign, so that it would be a lesson to all the other Tamil prisoners who are agitating for their early release”.

International community's silence, complicity in crimes  

He said that the members of the international community are equally “responsible for these murders, because the international community during the war unconditionally supported the Sri Lanka’s war machine, against all our requests”.

“They were of the view that peace would return to Sri Lanka once the war is over. Now it has come to light that the government of Sri Lanka has dishonoured the assurances given to the Tamil people while taking the advantage of the international community's reluctance to act”.

“The war victory has given the sense of hope to the government that it can get away with any murder. Even three years after the end of the war, the government still continues killing and murdering Tamil people in this country,” Mano Ganesan said.

© JDS