SLA assaults Human Rights Advisor, SLHRC coordinator receives death threats

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 February 2007, 10:24 GMT]
The Legal Advisor of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (SL-HRC) Jaffna office, Mudiyapu Remedias, an Attorney-at-law, registered a complaint Friday with the Jaffna Commanding Officer of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) that he was assaulted severely by a group of SLA soldiers near Stanley Road in Jaffna Town, Friday morning, when he was on duty. Meanwhile, S. Surenthirarajah, the Co-ordinating Officer of the organisation, also registered a complaint with the Jaffna police that he has been subjected to continuous threats to his life.

A group of the SLA troopers of the Road patrol unit on Stanley Road assaulted Mr. Remedias, despite his presenting his credentials as the Legal Officer working for the HRC, said the Legal Officer in his complaint.

Mr. Surenthirarajah, who is the only coordinator at the SLHRC, in his complaint lodged at Jaffna Police, has said that a person alleged to be the member of a "political party" had threatened him, with weapon and had made several phone calls warning him, on January 31st night.

He has also mentioned in the complaint that these threats to life and intimidations are being made due to the prominent role the Jaffna SL-HRC takes in investigating into, and exposing the continuing arrests, disappearances and killings in the Jaffna peninsula.

Already, two Co-ordinating Officers working for the Jaffna HRC had vacated their posts and had sought asylum in Canada because they were assaulted by the police when they went to the Jaffna police station to register complaints against the threats to their lives.

A Sinhalese Co-ordinating Officer working for the Jaffna HRC had earlier vacated his post because of the continuous threats to his life and to Surenthirarajah.

Remedias assists in the capacity of Legal Advisor to Surenthirarajah at the SLHRC office in Jaffna.