2ND LEAD

Whose ‘security’ was Zeid concerned of when he called Tamil prisoners ‘security detainees’?

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 March 2016, 23:44 GMT]
The North East Secretariat of Human Rights (NESoHR) has issued a snapshot drawn from 70 hand-written statements, which were in possession of the Tamil human rights group since early 2008. Presenting the cases of 18 Tamil prisoners who have been subjected extreme torture inside the New Magazine prison of genocidal Sri Lanka, the NESoHR statement dated 12 March 2016, questioned: “Can any human being think of any purpose in holding these Tamils in prison?” The report has come at a time when the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Zeid bin Ra’ad finds it appropriate to call them ‘security detainees’. The question is whose security Mr Zeid was concerned of when he termed Tamil political prisoners that way, ask the kith and kin of Tamil political prisoners, who are on a hunger-strike for more than two weeks now.

Zeid nakedly undermines impartial investigation. How could there be any neutral investigation when he declares Tamil prisoners as security threat while the accused ones are roaming free, asked the University students who staged a protest on Friday in Jaffna.



The prisoners on hunger strike have refused medical treatment. But, beyond their control, the hunger strikers are being subjected to medical treatment by the SL prison authorities in an attempt to forcefully contain their struggle.

The political detainees, whose cases are described in the NESoHR report are still believed to be in the jails of SL State.

In early 2008 the then member of parliament Kiddinan Sivanesan, a few weeks before he was assassinated in a targeted claymore attack, handed to NESoHR a data CD of PDF files of seventy hand written statements of Tamil political prisoners who were held in the New Magazine prison at that time.



Chronology: