Prabhakaran's parents in torture chamber, says Tamil magazine

Tiruvengagam Velupillai(76) and Parvathiammal(71), parents of LTTE leader V Prabhakaran who died in the battle for Eelam last May, have been detained in the "Fourth Floor" of the Colpetty detention centre of the army and police in Colombo which has become notorious as a torture chamber, popular Tamil magazine Ananda Vikatan published from here (Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India) has said.

Quoting Tamil reporters and disapora, the magazine has said the two were picked up from the Manik Farm after the end of the Eelam war and taken to the army and police detention centre in Colombo, where they are being kept in separate cells.

Described as the "Fourth Floor" since the detention centre is located there, the magazine alleges captives are subjected to new methods of torture quite apart from known ways like electric shock, ice slab and phosporous treatment. These methods include hanging the prisoner upside down, covering his face with a polythene cover filled with petrol, forcing him to gulp it and then threatening to throw a lighted match into his mouth.

Few have survived the torture. And survivors can never overcome the trauma in their lifetime, the magazine alleges.

Velupillai, who was a government servant, distanced himself from Prabhakaran after he took up arms for the Eelam cause at the age of 17.

After their eldest daughter Jagadeeswari got married and settled down in Canada, Velupillai and Parvathi came to Tiruchi to stay with their younger daughter Vinodhini in the post-1987 Indo-Sri Lanka accord period. When Vinodhini too migrated to Canada, they stayed with their family doctor Rajendran in Musiri near Tiruchi.

They moved to Tiger controlled areas in northern Sri Lanka during the uneasy truce period in 2003 and joined with Prabhakaran. After the war intensified, Prabhakaran tried his best to pack them off to some other country. But they decided to sail or sink with him.

In the last phase, when waves upon waves of people moved into army controlled areas, Prabhakaran's parents also moved out and stayed in Manik Farm.

When the army coming in search of them started torturing fellow camp mates, the two came forward and surrendered. They were taken to a temporary shelter. Quoting Tamil reporters and Tamil diaspora, the magazine said that contrary to the convention that those above 60 should be allowed to have a care-giver, the army refused to allow any relative to be with them even when their health deteriorated. It even denied them medical care.

After a month-long detention, the army took them to an unknown destination. Their whereabouts were not known all these months. "Only now we have come to know they are detained in the notorious "Fourth FLoor", the magazine quoted Tamil sources as saying.

Tamil reporters told the magazine that they have reliably learnt that Velupillai and Parvathi have been kept in the chamber for the past four months.

When the 10-member MPs team from Tamil Nadu visited Sri Lanka to know at first hand the condition of displaced persons, Dalit leader and pro-LTTE team member Thol Tirumavalavan wanted to meet Prabhakaran's parents. He was told by Gothabaya Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary and President Mahinda Rajapaksa's brother, that "we have no objection to releasing them provided India is willing to give them refuge". Mr Gothabaya Rajapaksa further said that they released another detenu, Dr Tamilvani.

"But she migrated to the west and started a campaign against us", he is reported to have told Tirumavalavan, according to a Tamil reporter.

The magazine has said Vinodhi is now trying to secure her parents release and send them to India with the help of Tamil National Alliance leaders R Sampanthan and Mavai Senathiraja. Whether she will succeed will be known in the next few weeks.

Ever since a report was sent to the US Congress about alleged human rights violations by the Sri Lankan army in the last stages of the Eelam war, Sri Lanka has become wary of sending displaced Tamils abroad, Tamil journalists have told Vikatan.

- Asian Tribune -