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Human Rights Defenders from South Sri Lanka are prevented from entering Tamil homeland
Published Date: 14/12/2012 (Friday)

A Group of 42 human rights and political activists and journalists from Southern Sri Lanka entering Tamil homeland in the north were detained by police in Jaffna and prevented from attending a protest to mark international human rights day in Jaffna on 10 December 2011, while events to mark Human Rights Day including protests in other parts of Sri Lanka such as in Colombo, Kandy and Kurunegela were allowed to take place without disruption. The police also tried to disperse the locals who gathered in Jaffna town to join the rally. Those who were arrested include NSSP party members, members of the Committee to Investigate Disappearences (CID), political activists from the Communist Party (Maoist), Socialist Party and journalists and members of the fisherman’s association who were travelling to Jaffna in a bus from Colombo and other parts of the country to join the protest.

This is said to be the second major protest organised in Jaffna in recent years following the protest organized by the Free Media Movement against the attack on Uthayan News Editor G. Kuganathan in August 2011.

The protest on December 10th 2011 was organized jointly organised, amid tight security controls, by civil society groups such as Right to Life, International Movement against Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), Committee to Investigate Disappearances (CID), families of the disappeared, political parties including the Tamil National Alliance, Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP), the Socialist Party, and Communist Party of Sri Lanka (Maoist) and social and human rights activists to highlight their key human rights concerns and ongoing violations, particularly in the North of Sri Lanka.

Reports emerging from the north indicated there was heavy military and riot police were deployed all over Jaffna and busses and vans carrying passengers coming into Jaffna were all stopped and searched. Additional army personnel were also positioned inside Jaffna police station. Another report suggested that a bus carrying protesters from the south to Jaffna town were stopped around 9am by Sinhalese police at the Navatkuli check-point. It was reported that police entered the bus and seized copies of the Tamil NSSP newspaper Puthiya Samathanamam, a registered periodical published from 1996. Following a brief argument the police purchased a copy of the paper and allowed the bus to proceed.

Around 10.30am, on their way to the Jaffna Central Bus Stand to join the main protest, the bus carrying the group of protesters was again stopped by a police team near Vembaddi Junction, opposite the Nurses Training College (NTC) in Jaffna town. The protesters were ordered to get down from the bus and searched again and confiscated all campaign leaflets calling for investigations into disappearences, placards and posters including photographs of disappeared persons, and banners of the NSSP and  the CID and the periodical, Puthiya Samathanamam. It was said that the confiscated materials were worth around Rs. 30,000.00. No receipt was given for the materials confiscated by the police.

The group was held on the road surrounded by around 15 policemen. Later around 10 armed army officers joined the police cordon. The police refused to allow anyone to attend the protest despite pleas from leaders of the group and an appeal by Jaffan MP Mavai Senthathirajah, who arrived at the scene shortly after .

No reason or justification was given for this treatment. The police told the group that a protest could not take place in Jaffna without prior police permission. Members of the group argued that no police permission was required for a peaceful protest which did not harm or disturb the public.  The police also said that any gathering of more than five people could not be held without police permission and that any member of the group who tried to leave the place they were being detained, would be remanded.

The protesters tied handkerchiefs over their mouths and sat on the road in protest against their unfair treatment. According to Mr. Ranath Kumarasinghe, politburo member of the NSSP, the main purpose of their detention was to prevent the Human Rights activists from joining the protest at any cost.

The Sub Inspector and Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) who were present at the scene, accused the activists of trying to provoke ethnic tensions and undoing what the military had achieved after years of struggle against terrorism. He said that they would be answerable to the nation for their actions.

The group was held on the roadside for over 2 ½ hours and later released after intervention of the Head Quarters Inspector (HQI) of the Jaffna Police, who himself was very abusive and harsh against those who came to speak to him to get the detainees released.

The activists were released at around 12.45 pm by the HQI who instructed the ASP to allow them to join the protest in pairs. According to Mr. Gunasena Wijesinghe President of the CID as they were leaving Vembaddi Junction, he heard the  ASP say in Sinhala that when you come to our area you must behave in a manner that is suitable to us. He also told the group that ‘this is not Colombo, this is Jaffna’.

The group joined the protest at around 1 pm and continued the protest for around 45 minutes. Following the protest they held a short meeting to discuss the incident and left Jaffna at around 2.30 pm and returned to Colombo the same night.

Shortly before the group left Jaffna, it was reported that Mr. Sundram Mahendran, Secretary of CID spoke to an Inspector of Police who was at the bus stand and asked him whether they could recover the materials that had been confiscated by the police in the morning. The Inspector scolded Mr. Mahendran and told him that they should consider themselves fortunate that had not been killed and asked him to get out of that place.

Campaign against Police brutality in Jaffna

On 12th December 2011, the affected organisations organised a protest in Colombo against the illegal detention and harassment and intimidation and the behaviour of the police against the social, human rights and political activists by police in Jaffna. They said that they had seen how the police attacking women who were in the protest to mark international human rights day in Jaffna on 10 December 2011. Mr. Mahendran said that he saw the police hit and push some women to the ground. The police formed a cordon around the women and prevented them from leaving the area.

On 13th December 2011, Mr. Mahindran from the CID, Mr. Ajith Rupesignhe from the Communist Party (Maoist), Mr. Mahinda Devage from the Socialist Party and Janaka Silva, Mr. Janagan and Perumal Koominathanan from the NSSP filed a complaint with the Inspector General of Police against the treatment by the police and asked the IGP to conduct an inquiry into the incident and to return the confiscated materials, particularly the photographs of disappeared persons to the group. The Officer in Charge of the Special Investigation Unit recorded the complaint told the group that he had informed the IGP by telephone and obtained a special order from the IGP to the area Deputy Inspector General of Police to inquiry into the incident. 

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