CRUEL SINHALA PRISONS: ALWAYS RISK OF LOSS OF LIVES/ SAFETY FOR TAMIL POLITICAL PRISONERS! RELEASE THEM ALL OR KEEP THEM IN NE! IC/UN MUST HELP NOW!!

Tamil political prisoners attacked in Colombo
[TamilNet, Friday, 13 November 2009, 04:40 GMT]

22 Tamil political prisoners in custody within the Colombo Remand Prison (CRP) were attacked Friday morning by Sinhala prisoners, initial reports from Colombo said. Seven of the prisoners were rushed to Colombo hospital with serious injuries.

The attack on prisoners has taken place around 6:30 a.m. Friday.

Further details were not available at the moment.


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CLASH BETWEEN TWO GROUPS: TENSION PREVAILS IN PRISON

By Shalika Ranaweera

A tense situation prevailed at the Magazine Prison in Welikada yesterday following a clash between two groups of prisoners after one group had allegedly thrown a stone at a prison guard, prison authorities said.

Prisons Department spokesman Keneth Fernando said that no one was injured in the clashes and the situation had been brought under control.

Prisons Commissioner-General Major General V. R. De Silva also confirmed that there were no casualties due to the incident.

“According to the prison ordinance there is a laid down programme for prisoners in the morning and for that we unlock them and take out of the cells. This incident took place in the morning when the officer was trying to unlock the prisoners in the ward J of the Welikada Magazine Prison,” he said.

He said that the Superintendent of the Prison appoints a leader to each ward based on their conduct. “As the leader of this particular ward had been taken into court for hearings the prisoners had not obeyed the orders of the officer in charge.

The dispute rose afterwards and the prisoners in the nearby cells also were involved in the scene. But the prison authorities were able to control the situation,” he added.

When inquired he said that prisoners in ward J had been taken into custody under Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and emergency regulations.

“Most of them are Tamils.

In the meantime, there are a few Sinhalese as well. Thereby some people try to interpret the incident in a different angle,” he said.

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