HRC to hold inquiry into LTTE's complaint

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 September 2003, 20:18 GMT]
The Jaffna regional co-ordinator of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, Mr. Ruwan Chandrasekara, Thursday decided to hold a full-scale inquiry next Wednesday after obtaining the advice of the Inspector General of Police of Sri Lanka into the complaint by a LTTE political activist, Mr.Nadaraja Premachandran alias Jegan, that he had been humiliated and mistreated by the Sri Lanka Army soldiers and the police Tuesday, HRC sources said.

The HRC regional co-ordinator in Jaffna summoned the officers in charge of the Chunnakam Police and Kodikamam Police for a preliminary inquiry at his office Thursday morning. The Officer -In-Charge of the Kodikamam Police turned up but the Chunnakam OIC was absent

The Kodikamam OIC told the HRC Thursday that the LTTE activist in question was taken into custody by the Police and soldiers at the Muhamalai checkpoint as his name and the name of a person wanted in connection with a crime in Chunnakam in the Jaffna district were identical. The LTTE activist was subsequently released on the same day after summoning the parties concerned, HRC sources said.

Following the OIC’s submission, the HRC regional co-ordinator in Jaffna decided to obtain the advice of the IGP in this regard and to hold a full inquiry into the complaint on Wednesday next week, sources said.

The LTTE activist in his complaint to the HRC had stated that he was taken into custody at the Muhamalai checkpoint on Tuesday around noon after he showed his identity while returning to Kilinochchi after spending some days in Jaffna.

He said that he was later handcuffed and dragged to the Kodikamam police where he was forced to sign a statement purported to have been by him and that was written in the Sinhala language. The Chunnakam police officer also forced him to sign a similar statement in Sinhala, he said in his complaint, sources said.