UN Special Rapporteur on Torture visits Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 October 2007, 05:21 GMT]
Mr.Manfred Nowak, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Human Rights Abuse arrived in Colombo Sunday morning around 9 a.m. During his one-week stay till October 8 he is to hold talks with authorities concerned and victims of torture and human rights abuse, according to human rights sources in Colombo.

Mr. Nowak is expected to pay a visit to Boosa detention camp and other prisons and police stations in the south where hundreds of Tamil civilians arrested in north and east provinces and elsewhere under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and Emergency Regulations (ER) are held in detention without charges or evidence against them for a long periods, sources said.

Mr.Manfred Nowak is also scheduled to visit Jaffna and Batticaloa.

He is scheduled to hold discussions with Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse, Human Rights Affairs Minister Mr.Mahinda Samarasinghe, Chief Justice and justice ministry officials and representatives of international and national non-governmental officers during his stay in Sri Lanka, sources said

Chronology: