Parents visit Tamil political prisoners as violence spreads through Sri Lankas jails

Parents of Tamil political prisoners have visited their children at Colombos Magazine Prison and Welikada Prison amid growing fears for their safety following a wave of unrest across Sri Lankas prison system.

The former political prisoner Murugaiya Komagan, an activist with the Voice of the Voiceless organisation, accompanied the families on the visits.

Komagan said concerns over the safety of Tamil political prisoners had intensified after the unrest at Magazine Prison, where one death was reported. Four Tamil political prisoners are currently held there, with others detained at Welikada. Although police and military personnel have been deployed to provide security, he said the safety of political prisoners remained a serious concern, with past incidents involving political prisoners in Sri Lankan prisons having heightened fears among detainees and their families alike.

He called on the government to release Tamil political prisoners held for prolonged periods and to ensure their immediate safety, recalling that the National Peoples Power had pledged during the presidential election campaign to release political prisoners, a commitment also contained in its manifesto. The prisoners themselves, he said, had reminded the visitors of those promises and asked that the matter be brought to the presidents attention.

Komagan urged Tamil politicians elected on Tamil votes not to remain mere spectators but to press the government for the prisoners release.

A committee appointed to address issues concerning political prisoners has already submitted its reports to the Ministry of Justice, he said, but implementation of its recommendations has been delayed. He called for those recommendations to be implemented without further delay as a measure to prevent further incidents within the prison system, and for the release of Tamil political prisoners to be included among them.

He also called for other long-term detainees held under various charges to be considered for rehabilitation or release on grounds of good conduct under the Prisons Ordinance, so they might rejoin their families.

"These prisoners have been psychologically affected and are longing to return to their families," Komagan said, adding that former prisoners understand the suffering caused by prolonged detention and urging the government to act immediately.

The fears are grounded in precedent. In July 1983, Tamil political prisoners held at Welikada, most detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and never convicted of any offence, were killed inside the prison by Sinhala inmates during the Black July pogrom, in two separate attacks days apart. No one has ever been convicted over the killings. In October 2000, 27 Tamil detainees were massacred at the Bindunuwewa rehabilitation camp near Bandarawela by a mob, in the presence of police, with all those charged eventually acquitted.

Tamil political prisoners, some held for well over a decade under the Prevention of Terrorism Act without trial, have staged repeated hunger strikes and fasts demanding release. Successive governments have promised to repeal the Act, which permits prolonged detention without charge and has been used overwhelmingly against Tamils and Muslims, and it remains in force.

The visits follow riots at several prisons in which three inmates were killed and more than 20 injured, weeks after 30 people died in two days of fighting at Negombo. Sri Lankas prisons hold more than 39,000 people in a system built for around 10,000.