17.10.1996

Sri Lanka: an appeal for solidarity

The International Communist Party requests your support for a picket of the Sri Lankan Embassy on Wednesday October 23 to demand the release of Selliah Rajkumar, a member of the Revolutionary Communist League (Sri Lankan section of the ICFI). The picket will be between 10.30am and 2.30pm.

Rajkumar, a young Tamil worker, was arrested in July while travelling from his home in Udappuwa in the Chilaw area to visit relatives in the northern town of Vavunia. Having been falsely charged with being a suspected terrorist, he has since been held incommunicado at Aralaganwila police station in the eastern district of Polonnaruwa and has been tortured.

Rajkumar told the police that he was not a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. On hearing of his false imprisonment, the RCL immediately submitted legal documents substantiating he was a member of the RCL and no other organisation, whilst at the same time establishing the nature of his trip. The local police then called in the Criminal Investigation Division, after which Rajkumar was once again subjected to more beatings and torture. We understand that comrade Selliah has suffered severe wounds to his back as a result of being beaten with sticks and has serious stomach injuries from the brutal blows inflicted by his interrogators.

Although the authorities claimed that Rajkumar would be produced in court and either charged or released by July 15, he is still being held without charge under the repressive emergency regulations which the Peoples Alliance government has extended over the entire island. There is every indication that the authorities plan to murder Rajkumar.

The ICP has organised the picket to demand the immediate release of comrade Selliah and his safe passage and to demand an end to the dictatorial measures being implemented by the Sri Lankan government against the workers and oppressed masses.