Fate of the 10,000 insurgent suspects yet to be determined by Sri Lanka state

"Human rights watchers have estimated that close to 10,000 post-war detainees with suspected links to the Tamil Tigers are being held at government safe houses even as screening of war-displaced persons continues in camps in Vavuniya," writes Satarupa Bhattacharjya to Sunday Times of Sri Lanka on June 28, 2009. Over 270,000 displaced people from Vanni are held in these camps.



Sri Lanka state does not consider these persons as political prisoners or prisoners of war but terrorists. Their fate remains still undetermined while several thousands more persons suspected of abetting terror acts are languishing in detention or remand for years due to slow legal process.


"Between March and May 2009, ICRC delegates held private interviews with more than 6,700 security detainees in nearly 135 government-run places of detention throughout the country and provided them with clothes, toiletries and recreational items. The ICRC supported the families of some 1,400 detainees to visit their detained relatives," reported Relief Web.

The government granted amnesty to most of the rebels of 1989 insurrection led by People's Liberation Front (JVP) in a rehabilitation process that stretched for some years while some insurgents were tried for criminal offences. However, the top and middle level leadership was eliminated and the present situation is also similar to 1989 era.