Tamils languish in Lankan jails

Thousands of Tamil youth are being held in military and police custody without charges, a former diplomat has told the Lankan war commission.

Thousands of Tamil youth are being held in military and police custody without charges, a former diplomat has told the Lankan war commission.

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Incarcerated for years, these youth could throw up “many more Prabhakarans” because of their mental state, K. Godage told the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) in his deposition.

The LLRC, set up President Mahinda Rajapaksa in May, is looking into reasons behind the breakdown of the 2002-2008 ceasefire and the final years of the civil war.

“…there are said to be over two thousand Tamil youth being held in custody... held for years without being charged,” Godage told the Commission in his report.

At the end of the war, nearly 11,000 Tamil men and women were arrested on suspicion of being LTTE cadres.