Stop transfer of detainees to Anuradhapura - MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 January 2000, 17:32 GMT]
Mr.Joseph Pararajasingham, MP for the Batticaloa district has made an urgent appeal to President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge to direct the Defense Secretary and the Commissioner of Prisons to stop the transfer of 46 Tamil political prisoners to Anuradhapura from Batticaloa.

In a letter to the President, Mr.Pararajasingham has pointed out that the majority of these prisoners are from Batticaloa, Ampara and Trincomalee districts.

Mr.Pararajasingham has brought to the notice of the President the incidents that took place at Kalutara prison on the 6th and 7th of this month in which two Tamil political prisoners died and several wounded when they were attacked.

Mr.Pararajasingham has recalled in that letter the infamous Welikada prison massacres in which over 75 Tamil political prisoners were killed in July 1983.

"All these incidents speak of the insecurity of Tamil prisoners in jails which are supposed to be more secure. As a safety measure, instead of transferring some of these Tamil prisoners to prisons in the northeast, I am at a loss to understand why the detainees at Batticaloa prison are to be transferred to Anuradhapura jail which would become another death trap for them", said Mr.Pararajasingham in his letter.