Sri Kantha meets fellow MP Kanagaretnam in detention

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 September 2009, 03:07 GMT]
N.Sri Kantha, Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Friday met with the fellow parliamentarian Mr. Sathasivam Kanagaretnam who is currently being detained under the Emergency Regulations (ER) in the sixth floor of Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department (CID), sources in Colombo said. Mr Kanagaretnam was arrested from a camp in Omanthai by CID officiers when the MP sought refuge after fleeing from Mullaitheivu in the last leg of military operation against LTTE. The TNA MP was trapped for several months in Mullaitheivu due to military operation.

The meeting between the two MPs lasted for about twenty five minutes.

Mr.Sri Kantha later told media that his continuous detention would be highlighted in the talks between a TNA delegation and Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse which is scheduled to take place on Monday evening at Temple Trees.

After carrying out the final stages of military offensive without independent witnesses, the Sri Lanka Government has incarcerated potential witnesses fearing exposure of alleged war-crimes, several human rights groups have alleged.

Besides holding 300,000 Tamil civilians who escaped from the conflict zone in military supervised internment camps, Sri Lanka authorities have detained five Tamil doctors, Mr Kanagaretnam, and several foreign citizens of Tamil origin.

The doctors were recently released on bail after they recanted earlier statements of numbers killed.

Status of Tamils with foreign citizenship, who are still held in internment camps, are not known. Western Governments, sensitive to Sri Lanka's war-crime exposure fears, are allegedly working behind the scenes to free their citizens, civil sources in Colombo said.

Chronology:


Related Articles:
21.07.09   Colombo should end the farce, free doctors - New York Times
11.07.09   Amnesty calls for war crimes probe after doctors paraded
10.07.09   The Times calls for world boycott of Sri Lanka over detainee..
16.05.09   Doctors quit safety zone, volunteer medics remain with injur..