Unidentified gang ransacks Tamil NGO office in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 January 2012, 12:14 GMT]
The Colombo office of "Vi'luthu," a non-governmental organization that has been implementing development projects for the welfare of the underprivileged people in the North and East by providing free legal advice and conducting courses in journalism, was ransacked by an unidentified group of persons in the late hours of Monday or early hours of Tuesday, according to an official of the NGO.

The Colombo office is located along Torrington Avenue.

Unidentified persons had entered the office forcibly through rear entrance. The gang had thrown all files and other documents kept in the office on the floor after subjecting the documents to intensive examination.

A NGO officer claimed Rs.15,000 kept in office was missing. All documents were left behind.

NGO authority had lodged a complaint with the Cinnamon Garden Police.

The NGO has been publishing several magazines for the teaching community including Ahavilzhi in Tamil and some magazines for parents, sources said.

SL ‘special agents’ ransack human rights activist's apartment in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 December 2011, 02:25 GMT]
Sri Lankan investigation officers claiming to be from the ‘Special Unit’ on Wednesday evening ransacked an apartment where a Tamil human rights activist from the East was residing in Colombo. The agents clad in civil and uniform entered the room of the human rights activist around 10:00 p.m. and took away documents and files without mentioning the intention of the action and without providing any list of what they have taken from the apartment, informed sources said. The Human Rights activist, who was formerly a progamme officer of a Belgium-based international organisation, was living in the apartment with his Sinhala room mate. The Sinhala friend was taken away by the investigating officers, detained for almost 20 hours and harrassed, informed NGO sources in Colombo told TamilNet Thursday.

The ‘Special Units’ attached to Sri Lankan Defence Ministry think that data on human rights abuses in the island is being collected through current or former personnel attached to the international organisations, a Sinhala Human Rights activist in Colombo told TamilNet.

The ‘Special Units’ of Rajapaksa administration deploy various techniques to limit the access of certain international NGOs, while the employees from the island, are harrassed by ransack actions and other forms of intimidations, the activist said, while alerting the journalists and diplomats attached to various missions in Colombo on the recent incident.

The released Sinhalese room-mate has declined to talk to media.