Stop arresting upcountry Tamils without NIC- Trade Union

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 March 2007, 11:41 GMT]
Ceylon National Workers Congress (CNWC), one of the trade unions in the upcountry plantations, has appealed to Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse to order the security forces not to arrest plantation Tamils in the central province who do not possess national identity cards (NIC), sources said.

CNWC General Secretary, Mr.R.Thangavel, in a memorandum to Mr Mahinda Rajapakse said that it is a crime to arrest innocent Tamils and put them in remand for the only reason that they do not possess NIC.

He reminded the President that during the insurrection period in the south in 1988 and 1989 Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) cadres had forcibly removed national identity cards from estate Tamil workers. Since then no proper procedure has been adopted to provide NIC to upcountry Tamils.

Currently about two hundred thousand upcountry Tamils do not have NICs, as they have no legally valid documents to apply for such NIC.