Tamil Prisoners of War call for renewed struggle to free them from SL prisons

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 August 2016, 23:06 GMT]
Tamil Prisoners of War, languishing in the prisons of genocidal Sri Lanka have urged Tamil political and civil activists, students and journalists to launch a renewed struggle for their liberation from the SL prisons. The Tamil POWs said their freedom should be based upon a political decision and a principled one. If SL President Maithiripala Sirisena was able to re-instate a former Chief Justice subjected to impeachment by Rajapaksa government and extend complete Presidential pardon acquitting former SL Commander Sarath Fonseka of all the charges, how could anyone defend the lack of political decision to free the Tamil political prisoners without subjecting them to prolonged imprisonment, a spokesperson of the Tamil POWs asked TamilNet over the phone. The Tamil prisoners have raised severe criticism against Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan and TNA Parliamentarian M. Sumanthiran.



Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan, representing the Tamil National Alliance, has betrayed the political prisoners by urging them to place their trust on SL President, he said.

The Colombo government and the SL Attorney General's Department have deceived the Tamil political prisoners in an attempt to contain their uprising in October 2015, the spokesperson said reading out a statement in Tamil on behalf of the Tamil political prisoners.

The Tamil prisoners again wanted to launch their struggle on August 08, but Mr Sampanthan urged them through media that they should await till the Prevention of Terrorism Act is repealed. This is again a deceptive move, the spokesperson said pointing out a recent statement by Wiyeyadasa Rajapakshe, the SL Minister of Justice that the prisoners detained under the PTA would have to go through their cases under the SL Judicial System even though the PTA was repealed.

The Tamil political prisoners said their cases were being unnecessarily dragged on with postponements and that their cases were being transferred away from Tamil areas.

While the case on Sinhalese soldiers indicted in the brutal Kumarapuram massacre in Trincomalee was transferred to Anuradhapura Courts outside the Tamil homeland just to ensure the release of Sinhala soldiers, the cases of Tamil political prisoners were being transferred to Sinhala areas to block the Judges in Tamil areas from releasing the Tamil prisoners who don’t have any legal basis for continued detention, the spokesperson of Tamil POWs said.

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