January 24, 2012
By Norman Palihawadane
Thirty one including five jail guards and 26 inmates were injured yesterday at the Welikada New Magazine prison in a bloody clash.
The injured had been admitted to the Colombo National Hospital, prison sources said.
Hospital sources described the condition of two of the injured as serious and said that all 19 inmates admitted to the hospital following the clash had suffered injuries below the knee. Read more...
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By Deepal Jayasekera
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"Amnesty International today appealed to Sri Lanka's Minister of Justice to order a full and impartial inquiry into the killing of three Tamil detainees on 12 December at Kalutaraprison, south of the capital, Colombo. In its letter to Professor G. L. Peiris, the human rights organization expressed concern for the safety of other detainees who witnessed the killings and are currently under guard by prison staff who may have been involved in the act. Amnesty International urges that all necessary steps be taken to protect these witnesses.
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Sri Lankan Supreme Court overturns convictions in Bindunuwewa massacre
By Deepal Jayasekera
30 June 2005
The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka has acquitted the remaining four men convicted over the brutal massacre of Tamil detainees at the Bindunuwewa rehabilitation centre near Bandarawela in 2000. All charges against M.A. Sammy, D.M.S. Dissanayake, R.M. Premananda and S.J. Karunasena were dismissed on May 27 for “lack of evidence”. The first three were residents of the area and Karunasena was a police inspector in Bandarawela at the time.
On the morning of October 25 2000, a crowd of several hundred whipped up by Sinhala extremists gathered outside the Bindunuwewa centre, which held suspected members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Most of the detainees were young Tamils held without trial. Posters declaring “Chase out the Tigers who have destroyed the country” and “Close down the LTTE rehabilitation camp” had been pasted up in the area. Full Story>>>
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Tamil prisoners murdered in custody - December 1997
[see also Report by Peace Brigades International Sri Lanka Project and
Tamils appeal to world leaders to end Sri Lanka torture & murder of detainees]
Tamils appeal to world leaders to end Sri Lanka torture & murder of detainees]
"Amnesty International today appealed to Sri Lanka's Minister of Justice to order a full and impartial inquiry into the killing of three Tamil detainees on 12 December at Kalutaraprison, south of the capital, Colombo. In its letter to Professor G. L. Peiris, the human rights organization expressed concern for the safety of other detainees who witnessed the killings and are currently under guard by prison staff who may have been involved in the act. Amnesty International urges that all necessary steps be taken to protect these witnesses.During a magisterial inquiry into the killings, several detainees who reportedly saw the killings refused to give evidence out of fear for their lives. To Amnesty International's knowledge, those responsible have not yet been identified. Muthulingam Dharmalingam and Shanmugarajah Sivanesan, from Jaffna, and Sharif Jehan, a displaced person from Mannar, were among 137 Tamil detainees held at Kalutara prison. The three were reportedly hacked to death in front of Ward D at around 1 pm on 12 December by a group of Sinhalese common criminal prisoners in what appears to have been a premeditated attack. Full Story>>>
Welikade Prison Massacre 1983
Ilankai Tamil Sangam .Association of Tamils of Sri Lanka in the USA
by TamilNation, T. Sabaratnam & UTHR
In speeches from the dock, the two men announced that they would donate their eyes in the hope that they would be grafted on to Tamils who would see the birth of Eelam, the independent state they were fighting. Second hand reports from Batticaloa gaol, where the survivors of the Welikada massacre are now being kept, say that the two men were forced to kneel and their eyes gouged out with iron bars before they were killed. One version has it that Kutimani's tongue was cut out by an attacker who drank the blood and cried: "I have drunk the blood of a Tiger." The two men were among the 35 killed in the Welikada gaol on July 25. Another 17 were killed in the gaol two days later and the Guardian has obtained a first hand account of part of the fighting in this incident, including the circumstances in which Sri Lanka's Gandhian leader, Dr. Rajasunderam, died. |
...Prison Riots
Police knew about the Welikada Prison riots around 2.45 p.m. At that time, the following conversation was heard on the police radio network.
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| Entrance to Welikada Prison |
South 2 to South 1- There is a serious situation in the prisons. The Tamil prisoners are being killed. Mr. Janz is seeking police assistance. We can’t get there. The army is in control.
South 1 to South 2- If the army is in control, we had better keep off. We can’t afford to have a rub with the army.
South 2 to South 1- Received Sir, Roger.
Christopher Theodore Jansz was the Acting Prison Commissioner. Prisons Commissioner J. P. Delgoda was out of the country.
Trouble in the Welikada Prison started at 2:00 p.m. As the clock struck 2:00, 300 to 400 prisoners who were outside their cells ran towards the Chapel Section of the Welikada Prison, the high security jail in Sri Lanka. “Kill the Tamils,” they shouted. Some barked, “Kill Kuttimani.”.
INDICTMENT AGAINST SRI LANKA | ||
Black July 1983: the Charge is Genocide | ||
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