by Melani Manel Perera

More than year after the end of the civil war, no one has yet said what fate awaits hundreds of political prisoners held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Prisoners say they wrote a letter to the Pope about their fate, but no one has seen it.

Colombo (AsiaNews) – “Despite it being one year since the war was over the authorities have failed to address their [the prisoners’] concerns,” said the Daily Mirror in an article that appeared on 29 June. In it, the newspaper writes that a group of Tamil political prisoners, detained for months under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, wrote to Pope Benedict XVI and Catholic Bishops in Sri Lanka, asking for help. However, the Church said it has not received any such letter. Bishop Harold Anthony Perera spoke to AsiaNews about it.

Hundreds of prisoners remain in detention, including women with children, young people and elderly. “The prisoners say they want to live in freedom and peacefully in this country like any other citizen,” the paper says.

Prisoners complain that their repeated requests to President Mahinda Rajapaksa for justice have gone unheeded. For this reason, they want Pope Benedict XVI to intervene.

AsiaNews has not been able to speak to Mgr Malcolm Ranjith, archbishop of Colombo, but his secretary, Fr Quintus Fernando, said that the archbishop did not receive any such letter. He added that he called the prison chaplain of the archdiocese who also knew nothing of the letter.

Mgr Perera, chairman of the Catholic National Commission for Justice, Peace and Human Development, told AsiaNews that he had no knowledge of the letter either.

The mystery thus remains intact. Whether real or not, the letter’s appeal perhaps was meant to raise awareness about the prisoners’ plight, and provoke a debate, reminding people that hundreds of people still remain in jail, a cloud of uncertainty hanging over them.

• sri
• lanka
• tamil
• political
• prisoners
• catholic
• church
• benedict
• xvi