Five SLA surrender over Muslims' massacre

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 December 2001, 18:36 GMT]
A Lieutenant and four soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army were remanded by the Teldeniya Magistrate Monday in connection with the massacre of ten Muslim youths at Udawalathenne in Kandy district on 5 December, the day of the general elections. They surrendered at the official residence of the Magistrate through their lawyer and made statements about the killings. The Magistrate Mr. C. V. Rajapakse then ordered the suspects be remanded till 26 December. Meanwhile a high-powered team of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Police led by its Director Monday questioned the former Deputy Defense Minister General Anuruddha Ratwatte about the whereabouts of his two sons.

The CID questioned Gen. Ratwatte at his official residence in Colombo, sources said. Police investigations have revealed that his two sons were allegedly involved in the massacre of ten Muslims in Udawalathenne in the Kandy district.

The case in connection with the massacre is to be taken up for inquiry in the Teldeniya Magistrate's Court Tuesday.

In the meantime eleven security personnel who delivered a cache of arms to Peoples' Alliance parliamentarian D.M. Dassnayake of Puttalam district have been suspended from service. Of them eight were policemen and three homeguards, sources said. The Police recovered eleven T 56 assault rifles and several rounds of bullets from the Anamaduwa residence of Mr. Dassanayake who is in remand on the orders of Puttalam Magistrate.

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