Magazine prison Tamil detainees allege murder plot

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 May 2004, 11:24 GMT]
Tamil political detainees from the high security Magazine prison in Colombo have written a letter to Vanni Parliamentarian, Mr. Sivanathan Kishore, that there are secret plans to murder them and that Tamil parliamentarians should take immediate action to urge the prison authorities to transfer the Tamil detainees to Welikada prison, sources said.

Mr.Kishore has already spoken to Prison Commissioner Gunaratne Kuruppu who had promised the MP that he will visit the Magazine prison soon and take further action, sources said.

Excerpts from the letter to Mr. Kishore follow:

"Tamil political detainees who have been incarcerated in the New Magazine prison for a number of years are kept in an environment with minimal facilites and where there is no assurance for their security. Access to libraries, viewing of television and exercise of free speech have been consistently denied to them.

"We are kept in the prison with members of underworld gangs, Sinhala army deserters and those who committed serious offences of murder and rape. We have learnt of plans within this group to murder the Tamil prisoners.

"Complaints to prison authorities and prison judges did not receive serious consideration. Our request to meet the Commissioner of Prisons was also denied.

"We need to be urgently separated from Sinhala prisoners. Our appeals to former TNA parliamentarians and former Minister Mr.Maheswaran also did not result in any action.

"We humbly urge all concerned Tamil officials to attend to this matter."