Tamil prisoner hunger strike spreads to Welikada?

The Committee for Protecting Rights of Prisoners (CPRP) yesterday urged the government to look into the plight of Tamil prisoners detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. "The situation has now take a turn for the worse with the hunger strike launched by eight detainees in the Anuradhapura prison. One of the leading figures of the protest S Thillai Raj has been transferred to the Welikada Prison by authorities thinking that it will end the hunger strike. Raj has resumed his hunger strike in Welikada prison. There are 30 other similar detainees in the Welikada prison. They, too, will join the hunger strike. The government now has created two hunger strikes at Anuradhapura and Welikada," President of the CPRP, Attorney-at-Law Senaka Perera said.

Perera said that all eight inmates had been detained under the provisions of the PTA and each of them had spent more than nine years behind bars without their cases being heard. "I visited Raj and found that he was being treated badly. He had been sent to prison hospital handcuffed, which is a violation of his rights as an inmate."

Perera said that the political prisoners were demanding that they be released following a quick rehabilitation. The hunger strike launched by Tamil detainees in the Anuradhapura Prison entered its fourth day yesterday. Perera said that protestors had met TNA MP, M.A. Sumanthiran and Northern Provincial Councillor K. Sayanthan. "There are 107 detainees in prisons without charges filed against them. The President has pledged to expedite their cases. Politicians are only making use of them to gain mileage."