Amnesty International yesterday insisted that State Minister of Prison Management and Prisoners Rehabilitation Lohan Ratwatte accused of holding Tamil prisoners at gunpoint must face investigation.

Ratwatte on Sunday forcibly entered a State prison in Anuradhapura and held Tamil prison inmates incarcerated under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) at gunpoint and threatened to kill them.

In response to the incident, Amnesty International Asia-Pacific Director Yamini Mishra said: “These dumbfounding reports go to show that our ongoing concerns regarding Sri Lanka’s treatment of prisoners, especially the authorities’ torture and other inhumane and degrading treatment of PTA detainees are all too valid. 

“They also demonstrate the level of impunity for criminal behaviour that is indulged at the highest levels of Government. There must be a prompt, impartial and effective inquiry and the Minister must be held to account for his actions.”

Mishra said at UN Human Rights Council session on Tuesday that Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister boasted about the early release of 16 Tamil Tiger members under a Presidential pardon. “These men were in fact already due for release. Lohan Ratwatte’s alleged conduct further undermines the Government’s piecemeal efforts made to address the conditions of PTA prisoners, which is labelled as reconciliation,” she said. 

“The Foreign Minister also rejected the mechanism being set up to collect and preserve evidence for future accountability processes for gross human rights violations in Sri Lanka, saying that domestic processes are ‘vigorously addressing the relevant matters’. Unless Lohan Ratwatte is held to account for his criminal actions, these words will be hard to take seriously,” Amnesty International Asia-Pacific Director added.  

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