Kalutara prisoners begin fast unto death

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Five political prisoners in Sri Lanka's high security Kalutara jail, 43 kilometers south of Colombo, began a fast unto death today demanding that the government should begin legal proceedings against them or release them from the prolonged incarceration.

All Tamil and Muslim political prisoners who were held in the Welikada jail in Colombo were transferred to Kalutara last year after they began a fast unto death there which was brutally crushed by Sri Lankan Police.

Three were massacred on December 12 when Sinhala prisoners attacked these Tamil and Muslim political prisoners in the Kalutara jail.

Evidence has emerged recently at a commission of inquiry appointed to look into the Kalutara prison massacre that it was done with the connivance of some prison officials and Sri Lankan army sentries posted at the jail.

Of the five prisoners who began the fast, four were identified as

1. Thambaiah Sri Kanthan (A Tamil policemen arrested from the Nuwara Eliya Police station where he had been posted)

2. Wahabdeen

3. Kandaiah Paramasamy

4. Paramasamy Yogarajah

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