Detainees' parents appeal to Bishop

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 April 1999, 15:30 GMT]
The parents of five youths who were arrested by the Sri Lankan Army on 17, 18 and 19 April from Thadchanaamaruthamadu appealed to the Bishop of Mannar today to help them trace their sons.

The parents told the Bishop that SLA personnel in Madhu now claim that they are not aware of the arrests.

The five youths; Rajathurai Sasikumar, 22, Rajathurai Sivakumar, 20, Mahalingam Visvarajan, 26, Sathsivam Kannathasan, 26, and Seenivaasan Yukenthiran,21, were arrested by an SLA officer called Silva, said the parents.

Three of the five were blindfolded as they were being taken away from Thadchanaamaruthamadu, the parents said.

Thadchanaamaruthamadu is a large refugee centre near the Madhu church.

One of the arrested youths, Seenivaasan Yukenthiran,. was the son of a doctor and had recently received admission to the Eastern University in Batticaloa.

The SLA is currently interrogating and screening more than two hundred people from the general area of Madhu who are suspected of having had some link with the Liberation Tigers in the past.

Meanwhile human rights sources in Jaffna said that following detainees held at Kankesanthurai detention centre in Jaffna have been transferred to Kalutara prison, south of Colombo.

Mahenthirarajah Piramman, 16 Vairamuththu Varathan, 18 Aarumukam Kunathasan, 54 Sinnathamby Thiyakarajah, 52 Kalathevi Thiyakarajah, 48 Santhanam Thiyakarajah, 24 Rathika Thiyakarajah, 21

Four of the detainees belong to the same family.

They were produced before the Anuradhapaura Magistrate on April 14.