Habeas Corpus filed for Jaffna disappearances

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 October 2003, 17:23 GMT]
The Jaffna High Court Judge, Mr.K.P.S.Varatharajah, Wednesday entertained Habeas Corpus (HC) applications filed on behalf of seven Tamil youths who have been reported disappeared after their arrest by the Sri Lanka Army during the 1996-1997 period, and fixed the inquiry into these applications on October 29, legal sources said.

Attorney-at-Law Mr.M.A.Remedius of the Centre for Human Rights and Development filed the HC applications Wednesday, seeking the court to order the respondents cited to produce the youths they had arrested and who disappeared.

The arrested youth who disappeared are Ganesh Ramesh (32) of Kovilakandy, Tharmalingam Susinthirarajah (22), Sithambarapillai Perinpanathan (21), Ramanathan Annalingam (20), Gopalapillai Ambihaipalan (19), all natives of Navatkuli and Michael Bernard (34), Anthony Anistan (20) of Pashaiyoor in the court, legal sources said.

Mr.Remedius furnished necessary documents and affidavits on behalf of the seven disappeared Tamil youths, court sources said.

The present Sri Lanka Army Commander Lionel Balagalle, who was Jaffna area commander during 1996-1997, Lt Colonel Dumminda Heppitikolawa, who was the commander of the SLA detachment located in Navatkuli during the period the disappearance of several youths had taken place, Captain S.Bandara, former officer of the Pashaiyoor army camp and the Attorney general are among the respondents cited in these applications, legal sources said.

Meanwhile, another set of five HC applications is to be filed Thursday in Jaffna High Court seeking the production of five more Tamil youths arrested during the 1996-1997 period and later reported to have been disappeared.

The names of those disappeared youths are Ponnan Ravikaran of Kaithady south, Murugan Jeyaratnam and Murugan Sivarasa of Madduvil, Arasady Kodeeswaran of Navatkuli and Sinnathamby Sivakumar of Thachchanthoppu, court sources said.