Sri Lanka: Pressure Mounts To Free Political Prisoners

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Rights activists and relatives of political detainees have launched a nationwide signature campaign calling for the release of all the country’s political prisoners.

The vast majority of the detainees were arrested during the country’s long-running civil war and have spent years behind bars without charge, they claim.

The campaign was launched outside Fort Railway Station in the capital Colombo on Friday. Organizers say they hope to collect around 1 million signatures.

Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka

“We demand the government charge them with a crime or release them,” said Udul Premaratne, convenor of the Inter University Student’s Federation.

If the government is genuine about achieving true national reconciliation, they should free all political prisoners, he said.

According to the activists there are at least 900 political detainees languishing in prisons around the country.

However the government denies holding any. The minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Management, Nimal Siripala de Silva, told parliament recently there were no political prisoners in Sri Lanka.

He admitted that there are 359 former Tamil Tiger “criminal” suspects still being detained, of which 309 have cases pending against them.

Three new High Courts would be established to prosecute the cases, he added.

Attorney General Palitha Fernando has said that the government has decided to speed up the prosecution of all remaining hardcore LTTE cadres and rehabilitate those charged with minor offences.

“The cases would be heard within three months and the government has appointed a committee to do the preliminary work,” he said.

UCA News

The Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News, UCAN) is the leading independent Catholic news source in Asia. A network of journalists and editors that spans East, South and Southeast Asia, UCA News has for four decades aimed to provide the most accurate and up-to-date news, feature, commentary and analysis, and multimedia content on social, political and religious developments that relate or are of interest to the Catholic Church in Asia.

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