HRC to send investigation team to Welikada

By Lakmal Sooriyagoda

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) is preparing to send an investigation team to look into the Welikada incident which claimed 27 lives, Human Rights Commissioner Dr. Prathibha Mahanamahewa said yesterday.

The commissioner said an investigation team is to be deployed soon to the Welikada prison in order to carry out an investigation. Dr. Mahanamahewa said that the HRCSL would investigate the entire incident and a report will be issued accordingly.

He further said following the issue of the report, senior officers in the prison department would be summoned before the Human Rights Commission.

Expressing his views over the prison riot, Dr. Mahanamahewa said that the guardians should be held responsible for the incident and that they should have looked after the inmates properly. “The safety of the every inmate is the responsibility of the guardians. However, the guardians have not monitored the prison properly,” he said.

Dr. Mahanamahewa further observed that the time has come to make structural changes in the prison administration by making speedy arrangements to separate remanded prisoners from the drug addicted and convicted prisoners.