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Tested 1-year rehab programme will suit PTA detainees
Detainees held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) who may be released on condition of rehabilitation can go through the “efficient” one-year programme through which thousands of former Tigers have been integrated into civil society, the programme’s chief said.
Detainees seen outside the Hulftsdorp Magistrate court after being released.
Some legal sources, however, said the rehabilitation legislation did not cover these detainees, scores of whom have asked to enter the programme as a way of getting out from behind bars.
There was no need to design a new program for the detainees, the Commissioner-General of Rehabilitation, Major-General Janake Ratnayake argued.
“If the authorities direct us to put them into the rehabilitation scheme we will do that but it is up to them to determine whether the detainees will go into the rehab programme or be released under alternative regimes,” he said.
“We have rehabilitated more than 12,000 former combatants after the end of the war,” he pointed out.
The one-year rehabilitation programme for individual development of former combatants includes religious, cultural and educational rehabilitation, vocational rehabilitation feeding into livelihood development, psychological and creative therapies and extracurricular activities.
Major-General Ratnayake pointed to the programme’s recent success with a group of females who had been through a four-month programme and were now all in state service – some as Grama Niladharies – after the Bureau of the Commissioner-General for Rehabilitation recommended security clearance for them.
Following an assurance from the government for their speedy release, some 223 ex-LTTE prisoners held on terrorism charges called off their “fast unto death” on Tuesday.
“If the government fails to honour its assurance before December 15 we will be forced to recommence our protest,” the detainees stated in a letter to the Commissioner of Prisons,
So far, 39 detainees have been released in two batches on Monday and on November 9 on orders by the Colombo Additional Magistrates Court.
Magistrate Aruni Attygalle ordered Monday’s release under strict bail conditions including two sureties of Rs. 1 million each.
The court also impounded their passports and the released prisoners were ordered to confirm their permanent addresses and to inform the court if there was any change in these addresses.
They were also ordered to report to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) either in Vavuniya or Colombo every two weeks.
There are three categories of prisoner in this issue: those arrested as suspects and languishing in jails without prosecution, those facing pending cases in the High Court, and those who have been found guilty and are serving terms.
At least 99 prisoners have asked to be entered into the rehabilitation programme in letters conveyed through their lawyers.
“Realising that some of them have spent years in prisons without prosecution they have no other choice other than this to get released to join with their families,” Ponnuthurai Krishanthan, a lawyer who appeared for one of the prisoners told the Sunday Times.
Some legal sources say the government would face problems in agreeing to put these detainees through the rehabilitation programme as the PTA Act No 48 of 1979 states the programme is for those who voluntarily surrendered to the authorities.
“Those held under PTA cannot be considered as surrendees and sent for rehabilitation since they were either arrested by the TID or the CID. Some of them have cases pending in the High Court too.
It is unclear how the government is going to initiate this rehab with such complicated legal options,” a legal source said.
Veerasingham Sulakshan, a 21-year-old man released last week, said he finds it difficult to mingle or be reconcile with his own community. “All of us are charged under Prevention of Terrorism Act and seen as terrorist suspects,” he said.
Sulakshan was arrested last year in November by the TID under the suspicion of trying to revive the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) with the help some Tamil diaspora elements.
“All I did is write an article criticising the government,” he claimed.
He is angry that the main Tamil political party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), failed to negotiate with the government for an unconditional presidential pardon for suspects who have been held without prosecution and for entry into the rehab programme for the rest.
“When we started the ‘fast unto death’ on October 17, the TNA leader, R. Sampanthan, visited us and assured that a written assurance had been given by President Maithripala Sirisena to release us before November 7 but it did not happen and they were not bothered about that,” he said.
The National Movement for the Release of Political Prisoners is demanding that all prisoners held without charge be released unconditionally.
Movement Co-ordinator Fr M. Sakthivel accuses the TNA of downplaying the issue of political prisoners, saying the party had previously demanded a general amnesty for all and later changed its tone by urging the prison inmates to opt for the rehabilitation programme.
“The TNA has no right to urge them to go into rehab – that shows how it has failed to negotiate with the government for their release in the way they demanded this during the election period,” he said.
| Gang leader, mafia boss among the released Among the 31 mainly ex-Tiger combatants released on bail last week were a least six prisoners, including a mafia boss alleged to have committed criminal offences but held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), legal sources said. All of them were involved in robbery, arms dealing and alleged dealings with other underworld figures. Following arrest they had been held under PTA where the law allows longer detention without trial. Every three months they had been brought before a magistrate for renewal of a Detention Order (DO). The source explained that this has been the practice of successive governments to prevent the suspect from being given bail as the PTA lacks a bail option without a directive from the Attorney-General Department. A resident of Kilinochchi claimed a notorious gang leader and well-known local mafia boss is back in the area after having been released last week along with the batch of 31 prisoners who were mainly former Tiger combatants. |