Mutur Tamil youths complain of torture by Navy soldiers

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 June 2003, 18:18 GMT]
Two Tamil youths, Vettivel Kiritharan (23) and Kanagasabai Nagendran (21) of Pattalipuram in the Mutur East have been reported assaulted and tortured by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) personnel after being arrested on Wednesday, according to a complaint made to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) by the youths.

SLN personnel, camped at Mutur cultural hall arrested the youths Wednesday around 9 a.m. when they were proceeding to Mutur jetty to travel by passenger boat to attend a wedding in Trincomalee. They were taken to the navy camp where they were severely assaulted and tortured by navy soldiers till around five in the evening. Thereafter the navy released them, according to the victims.

They arrived Thursday evening from Mutur and lodged complaints at the SLMM in Trincomalee. One of the youths received bleeding injuries due to assault and torture, sources said.

The head of the Trincomalee SLMM has asked both youths to report to the government hospital for medical examination with the assistance of the International Committee of Red Cross, the sources said.