COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

SRI LANKA 7 MARCH 2012
� Although involved in various activities, many were still traumatised and required
psychosocial support.
� Boredom and isolation from family/friends/partners were significant factors. Wider use of
telephone facilities and placing them in camps closer to their homes would ease this.
On 8 August 2010 IOM visited two garment factories in Ratmalana and Homagama to meet
female ex-combatants who were ‗housed‘ there. There were a total of 261 females on the
premises, aged between 18 and 44 years old. They noted:
� All basic amenities are provided by the factory. The ex-combatant‘s living quarters were
separate from non ex-combatant workers, but they worked together.
� Most women responded positively when asked about their general well-being, although it
was felt that in a more private setting, a wider range of opinions might have been heard.
� All women were paid a basic salary of between $80-100 a month for a 6-day week. This
is transferred to individual bank accounts but the women are unable to access these
funds until they are released.
� All women were generally positive of their situation but were anxious to know their
release dates. A government representative present said that they would be released by
the end of September 2010.
� Most were positively disposed to starting home-based tailoring businesses, either alone
or in groups, once they returned to their home villages, as a result of the work/training
they were now undertaking.
� The women had been informed that they would be given National Identity Cards once
they had provided their birth certificates.
� Sunday was a visiting day for family members.
� The ex-combatants commented that they had expected to have received visits from
international humanitarian groups much earlier during their time in rehabilitation.
There were still a number of persons who are detained under the category of ‗active LTTE
members who have been served with detention orders under the Emergency Regulations and
are to be charged with offences‘. There were various quotes from the CGR and other military
spokesmen regarding this group, but exact numbers were scarce. We were told around 1,000
had been transferred into the regular judicial system and another 703 were continuing to be
investigated by the Terrorism Investigations Department (TID) with a view to following them into
the judicial system.
Defence Spokesman and Government Minister Keheliya Rambukwella stated that the
suspected detainees are yet to be charged by the Attorney General‘s (AG) Department. He
added that they had been referred to the AG and those found guilty of involvement with major
LTTE missions would be dealt with severely according to the law. When asked how long this
would take he noted that it would not be an easy task for the AG‘s Department to handle all of
the files of the detainees within a few days.
In December 2010 and January 2011 small batches of this group appeared before Magistrates
in Colombo. TID told the Courts that these persons had been arrested under the instruction of
264 The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.