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Foreign Ministry awaits report on jailed Lankans Relatives say Govt. doing very little By Nalaka
Nonis. The spokesman
said the ministry will act on the matter once the report on the
actual status of the jailed Sri Lankans is received at the end of
this week However, the
association of parents and guardians of Sri Lankan prisoners in
the Maldives said the plight of more than 40 Sri Lankans jailed
on various false charges has fallen on the deaf ears of the Sri
Lankan Government. Secretary of
the association P. Mudalige, told The Sunday Times that they have
written to the Government on numerous occasions asking it to intervene
on behalf of those jailed in the Maldives but the Government has
shown little interest. Mr. Mudalige said the Sri Lankan embassy in the Maldives is doing little to see whether the detainees held in the "Maa Fushi" torture camp could be released. He complained
that the Maldives Government had jailed the Sri Lankans on false
charges of drug smuggling, murder and rape and that more than 30
of over 40 detainees have been sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment. "Foreigners
working in the Maldives, specially Sri Lankans, are arrested by
police on false charges and are forced to sign a charge sheet for
a crime they have never committed. If anybody refuses to sign the
charge sheet he is beaten until he signs it," a prisoner released
from the torture house is reported to have said. He said Maldivian
judgments on offences are unfair because the case is handled completely
by the police. The duty of the magistrate is merely to place his
signature to the charge sheet, as he does not hold a trial. "Drug
smuggling in the Maldives is considered a serious crime and if a
policeman is able to arrest an offender he gets a promotion. In
addition, the Maldivian Government receives nine dollars daily from
the United Nations for maintenance of a prisoner and this has led
to more arrests on various charges" he said. According to
him, detainees in the torture house are subject to inhuman torture
throughout the day. At the slightest mistake of a detainee, he is
brutally flogged by the security officers, he said. "The permission
of security officers is required to use the toilet, and any detainee
who wants to use it in the night must somersault and do various
other exercises, for at least for an hour. Further once in a few
days some selected detainees are taken to the sea by the police
and held under water every 15 minutes on 4 or 5 days", Mr.
Mudalige said. Recently eight
Sri Lankan detainees were released from the "Ma Fushi"
torture house but only three were able to return to Sri Lanka as
the others had been detained again. Debate on PM's Oslo meeting report By Chandani
Kirinde Opposition
political parties had been seeking a debate on the ongoing peace
process for several months. Two days-January 30 and 31- have been
allocated for the debate. The Securities
and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka (Amendment) Bill and the Citizenship
(Amendment) Bill are also to be taken up for debate on two of the
four sitting days of the legislature this week. The Citizenship
Act is being amended to rectify the anomaly in the existing law
relating to gender discrimination and to afford female parentage
the benefit which now accrues only to the male parentage. The amendments
will give the benefit of acquiring the status of a citizen of Sri
Lanka by decent to persons whose mother is also at the time of his
birth a citizen of Sri Lanka. The Amendments to the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka Bill will among others extend the protection granted to investors in respect of the failure by licensed dealers or brokers to meet their contractual obligations and also enhance the powers and enlarge the scope of the duties of the Commission. |
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