Civilian robbed at Muhamalai checkpoint

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 July 2003, 15:41 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army Monday agreed to hold an identification parade to identify the army soldier who is alleged to have robbed cash from a Tamil civilian at the Muhamalai checkpoint on his way to Jaffna from Mullaitivu through the A-9 highway, and at the intervention of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, the 55th Brigade officials of the SLA later agreed to hold an identification parade, HRC sources said.

The victim is a resident of Mulliayawallai in the Mullaitivu district. On the day of incident, when he was traveling to Jaffna through the A-9 highway, he was subjected to body check at the Muhamalai checkpoint by a group of SLA soldiers. The victim later found the cash in his possession missing after the body check. He then went ahead to Jaffna and made a complaint in this regard to the HRC officials, sources said.

About 60 SLA soldiers who were on duty on the day of alleged incident at Muhamalai checkpoint would be produced before an identification parade, which is expected to be held during the weekend in the presence of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission monitors, HRC sources said.

However the SLA authorities said that they were unable to identify the suspect soldier in their departmental inquiry held in this regard, army sources said.