Government Hostages and the Right of Movement in Democratic Sri Lanka

More than 65 people were ‘arrested’ in abduction style by the Sri Lankan military intelligence operatives who claim their identity as ‘Terrorist Investigation Division’ (TID) officers from the SL Police Department, news sources in Ki'linochchi told TamilNet.

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(MELBOURNE) - In democratic Sri Lanka the Tamils are denied not only the right of free movement, but also the right to have visitors around. Hostage taking and keeping them in unhealthy conditions has become routine. Last week a pregnant Tamil lady, taken for interrogation, was handled so badly that she aborted. Please read on the Tamil Net article.

Alarming trend of ‘hostage taking’ by Colombo’s TID investigators: Lawyers

Detailing the condition of those detained, the note also said that there is a heavy presence of military and intelligence units in Mullaiththeevu and Ki’linochchi districts.

“When there are visitors to a house, the head of the household has to report to the Grama Seveka and the A.G.A and take the visitors to such officials for registration. This situation is worse than that prevailed during war time and this has caused immense fear in the people and has virtually frozen HRDs and the civil society organizations,” the note further said.

The soldiers often enter the residences of people under the pretext of obtaining information. The lawyers say that this practice has almost become a routine operation, harassing civilians in the two districts.

“The ordinary life is seriously affected with frequent cordon and search operations, checkpoints and arrests without reasonable suspicion.”

“Men and women who underwent rehabilitation are again directed to report to Army camps and police stations,” the lawyers said in the note.

More than 65 people were ‘arrested’ in abduction style by the Sri Lankan military intelligence operatives who claim their identity as ‘Terrorist Investigation Division’ (TID) officers from the SL Police Department, news sources in Ki'linochchi told TamilNet.

Only a few of them, around 8 people including a woman, have been released from the custody so far. All the eight released were from Jaffna and ‘arrested’ in Colombo.

The TID runs various interrogation offices at various locations in addition to having an embedded presence at the police stations across the North and East.