A forwarded statement by the Civil Monitoring Mission which appeared in the Sri Lanka Guardian
GoSL lies to the UN Working Group
by Mano Ganesan
(May 21, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) 25 year old plantation Tamil youth Jayakanthan Ramaiah abducted on 19th March, 2007 at Kadawatha town on Colombo-Kandy highway from a public transport bus and taken away in a waiting white van by men posing CID police personnel
Victims brother registers police complaint at Kadawatha police station on 22nd March, 2007 under # 229/208 obtains receipt and also at Civil Monitoring Commission
Victim is holder of National Identity Card # 830784608V issued to him by Commissioner of Registrations of Persons for state Department of Registrations of Persons
This incident is reported to the UN Working Group on 04th April, 2007
Sri Lanka Governments in its response now tells the UN Working Group that no such case was reported to the police and no such National Identity Card number exists in the Department of Registrations of Persons
(Mr) Jayakanthan Ramiah, a 25 years old young Tamil person went missing while traveling to his home town Madulkelle in Kandy District, central province from Colombo, the capitol of Sri Lanka.
The permanent address of Jayakanthan Ramiah is Kachamalai Estate, Kelebokka, Madulkelle. He was employed in Colombo.
The incident occurred on 19th March, 2007 at 10:30 AM. He was traveling in a public bus with the company of five more friends. When the bus passed Kadawatha town approaching Kirullawela area on Colombo-Kandy highway, a co traveler introduced himself as from Criminal Investigations Department (CID), got the bus stopped at a location where a white van was waiting by the side of the road.
All six men including Jayakanthan Ramiah were bundled into the van and taken away. Two days later all five except Jayakanthan Ramiah were released at the Gampaha police station. The police disclaimed taking in Jayakanthan Ramiah.
Subsequently brother of the victim Mr. Jaganathan Ramiah registered a complaint at Kadawatha police station of the disappearance of his brother. He obtained a signed receipt from the Inspector of police named Mr. Renuka who received the complaint at the Kadawatha police station. The receipt is handwritten by the police officer. The number of the complaint is 229/208. Date of complaint is 22nd March, 2007. Time of complaint is 02:20PM (14:220hrs). The police officer had put his mobile phone number as 0777720576, police stations number as 2925222 and his service number as 35699 in the receipt.
The National Identity Card (NIC) number of Jayakanthan Ramiah is 830784608V.This NIC was issued to Jayakanthan Ramiah on 11th February, 2003 by the Commissioner of Registrations of Persons by the Department of Registrations of Persons.
The incident was reported to Civil Monitoring Commission (CMC) by Mr. Jaganathan Ramiah. The number allotted to the complaint is CMC/ABD/86.
CMC forwarded this complaint the attention of Working Group (WGEID) at the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The WGEID case number allotted to the document on Jayakanthan Ramiah is 10000523 dated 04th April, 2007.
The WGEID has taken up the case with the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and has notified the response of the GoSL to the complainant Jaganathan Ramiah, brother of the victim, through us by letter dated 03rd April, 2008.
The complainant Jaganathan Ramiah, brother of the victim permits us to make the response of the GoSL public.
The Government of Sri Lankas response to the Working Group at the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is as follows:
“The criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Sri Lanka conducted an intensive investigation concerning the alleged disappearances of the above named. Inquiries revealed that no such person has been arrested by the CID and no complaints have been received at Raththota and Kadawatha police stations in this regard during the period under review. There is no record at the Department oF Registration of Persons concerning the issuance of the above National Identity Card (830784608V)”
Sri Lanka Guardian
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About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984. The above statement has only been forwarded by the AHRC.
