Vanni IDP family files FR seeking release from “internment camp”

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 July 2009, 07:35 GMT]
A Fundamental Rights violation petition has been filed in Sri Lanka Supreme Court Thursday seeking the release of a four-member family displaced from Vanni and currently being detained in one of the several camps in Vavuniyaa and to order two million rupees as compensation for illegal detention. Seventy-year-old Kanapathipillai Ehambaram of Naachchikudaa filed the FR petition on behalf of her daughter, son-in-law, and two grand daughters now being detained in a camp located in Vavuniyaa Koayil Ku'lam, legal sources said.

He says in his FR that he along with his daughter Jesuthas Rajenthini, her husband Jesuthas Nimalraj and her two children Niranjini and Puhalini were displaced from Naachchikudaa and sheltered in a camp in Vavuniyaa. He was discharged from the camp as he was seventy years old. But her daughter, son-in-law and grand children are not allowed to leave the camp. His daughter Rajenthini was the headmistress of the Naachchikudha Tamil School. Their detention is unlawful and fundamental rights are violated.

“Hence I pray court to order their release from the camp and also order the State to pay 2 million rupees as compensation to them for illegal detention,” the petitioner pleads.

The petitioner has cited Vavuniyaa camp officer-in-charge, Vavuniyaa Grama Niladhari, Vavuniyaa Army Commander, Vavuniyaa Government Agent, Commander of the Sri Lanka Army and the Attorney General as respondents.