Abducted youth escapes, surrenders to HRC

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 November 2006, 00:04 GMT]
A youth abducted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) at gun point from his house at Sebastian lane in Kondavil East Jaffna on 11 November, surrendered Friday at the Jaffna office of the Sri Lanka Human Right Commission (HRC), officials at the HRC said. The youth said he had escaped from SLA's vehicle and went under ground for a week before surrendering. Jaffna Magistrated directed the police to place the youth in protective custody at Jaffna prisons, legal sources said.

In a statement to the HRC, Thambyaiyah Jegan 26, a bachelor and a painter, said that he and two other youths were abducted by the SLA troopers of the Urelu SLA camp and were tortured at the camp premises for alleged links to the Liberation Tigers. Later when the three were taken in a Buffel armoured car to Anaipanthy, Jegan had managed to amid a hail of gunfire while the other two were shot dead by the troopers, Jegan said in the statement.

Armed soldiers had assaulted Jegan's mother when she had tried to stop the soldiers from taking her son. Jegan was forced to get inside the Buffel armoured vehicle waiting in front of his house, and he saw two neighborhood youths, Ravi Rajivan , 14, and Thankaroopan Jeeva, 21, already held captive inside the vehicle, Jegan said in the statement.

The three abducted youths were severely tortured by the SLA troopers at the Urelu SLA camp and then taken to Anaipanthy where the SLA troopers pushed Ravi Rajivan to the ground and shot him with a pistol. When Jegan was pushed to the ground he managed to free himself and fled the area narrowly escaping several rounds of fire aimed at him.

He took refuge inside a house and went underground till Friday, Jegan said in his statement.

He learnt later that the bodies of other two youths were found near Anaipanthy junction Sunday, where two SLA Intelligence Officers were killed in claymore attack on Thursday November 9, thes statement said.

Meanwhile, Mathavan Subramaniam, 50, a civilian from Palavy Road in Kayts surrendered at the Jaffna HRC Friday stating that he was shot injured by three armed Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) youths inside his house.

Subramaniam was also directed by the Jaffna Magistrate to be placed in the Jaffna prison for safety reasons, legal sources said.

HRC sources said eights persons who have surrendered at the HRC offices have been placed in Jaffna prisons.

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