United in Fear: Travails of Detainee families
March 30th, 2008
By Ronnate Tissainayagam
It was very early on a Saturday morning, we were all gathering in front of the Fort Railway Station. No we were not planning to go on a trip, We were the wives/sisters of the four journalists taken into detention on March 7th. Saturday is visitor’s day to the Terrorist Investigation Department (TID). Family members of the detainees have to gather at the Fort Railway Station between 9 a.m and 12 noon. There they are checked, bundled into a police van and taken to the TID.
So the five of us together huddled together at the station - half ashamed and hoping no body would notice us. We reminisced the many times our husbands/brothers had come to this very station to ‘cover’ various protest rallies but how there were none for them. A man approached us asking if this was the line for those waiting to board the train to Anuradhapura we waved him on embarrassed in case he found out where we were really going.
Suddenly the police jeep appeared and all of the families of the detainees got up from their own little groups and surged toward it. There were plainclothesmen shouting at us to get into lines - men on one side and women on the other. There were very few men going to visit people at the TID and most of them had come to accompany the wives, sisters and mothers of detainees. As this was the first time that I was doing this I just followed the rest of the families as they seemed to know the system. The checking began through the hustle and bustle with babies crying and plainclothes men yelling at the families to keep to their lines. Loud wails from the checking room emanated as carefully prepared food parcels that the families were bringing the detainees were man handled and made unfit for consumption.
Finally we were bundled into a large blue police jeep, which one had to climb into. It was too high for everyone and all the elderly ladies had to crawl in on all fours or be carried in by the other members of the family. We were packed liked sardines. For if we got late that was so much less time to see our loved ones, so we were all eager to go as soon as possible. One elderly gentleman had a problem with his knee and therefore he could not bend it but had to keep it stretched out. The plainclothesman yelled at the gentleman to put his leg inside the vehicle. The gentleman being a monolingual Tamil speaker was bewildered at this barrage of Sinhala. Those of us who knew Sinhala tried to explain to the plainclothesman the plight of this man. The plainclothesman then yelled at some people who were already in the van to get down and after they got out, he pushed the elderly gentleman’s leg inside the jeep and slammed the door shut. The elderly gentleman was in pain all the way to the TID on Chaitya Road.
As we were dropped outside the TID office on the roadside the plainclothesmen shouted at us to get into the nearby bus that was parked on the side of the road there, so we could be transported to see our loved ones. Those of us ‘newbies’ who were able to do the jump from the back of the jeep by ourselves, scrambled to get the front seats of this bus. As we neared it, the plainclothesman laughed out loud the bus had all of its tires deflated. This was his little joke to rag the newbies who did not know the system!
Another TID officer came up to the broken bus and he asked us for the names of the detainees that we had come to see. Then came the long slow wait in the relentless sun. At first we (journalists’ wives) did not speak with the relatives of the other detainees. Then as the hours wore on we went from timid smiles to exchanging information.
One lady had been a bride of one week before her husband was detained. Now he had been detained for 3 months and no reason had been given to him or to her as to why he was in custody.
Another had a babe of three weeks in her arms, her husband had also been held for three months without reason being given for detention.
This was the first time that her husband would be seeing this child. One other lady had to come from Kurunegala every week just to see her husband. He had been held for six months and not yet been charged.
As we stood exchanging stories in the blistering sun it became clear that while all of our races, backgrounds and cases were different what bound us together was fear. Fear of what might be happening to our husbands inside the TID, fear that neighbor’s might find out our husband’s were in detention and hound us from our homes, and fear that any of our actions could be misconstrued by the police and TID officers there and that could lead to the further detention of our husbands.
All of us, regardless of ethnicity or case had been warned by the TID officers not to take this matter to court or involve any lawyers. If we did involve lawyers then our husbands could be held indefinitely we were told. I, in my desperation to ensure my husband’s freedom was also thinking that I should not stand up for my husband’s rights. But then in the blazing sun I realized that for 20 years my husband had worked for the rights of the people of Sri Lanka and that in his own case he would not want me to stay quiet about his own rights.
In the early 1990’s my husband worked for the Organization of the Parents and Families of the Disappeared-an organization that worked in the South helping Sinhala families get justice for their children who had disappeared. My husband was one of those who compiled the documents that contained the names of the disappeared that then MP Mahinda Rajapakse took to Geneva in 1992. Today he is being accused of being a terrorist for seeking justice for those who had disappeared in the North and East. Here was a man who truly believed in the Rights of all people in Sri Lanka, who worked unstintingly for peace with ministers of this government and of members of all parties at the One Text Initative. He is now being incarcerated for speaking up for the people of his country.
When I looked at the tired, scared faces around me, I asked myself whether I should be ashamed of my husband or of my country?
[Ronnate is the wife of journalist JS Tissainayagam who is being held in detention from March 7th. A fundamental rights petition filed on his behalf has been given leave to proceed by the Supreme Court. It is to be taken up on March 31st. Meanwhile the Terrorist investigation dept has sought a court order seeking to seal up the Tissainayagam residence. It is also learnt that a detention order for three months was issued on March 27th against Tissainayagam]
Entry Filed under: transCurrents NewsFeatures
14 Comments Add your own
1. JeyP | March 30th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
This article is a must read for everyone. It shows the suffering that Sri Lankans have to go through for the sake of democracy. The suffering that Ronnate is undergoing should be an eye opener for all the upper class Sinhalese who think that every Tamil arrested is surely terrorist. Though she is a Tamil, I believe most of her close friends are Sinhalese including the wife of a very prominent member of the Sri Lankan cricket team with whom she is currently staying due to fear. Let us not fool ourselves, this madness will engulf us all one day (sooner than we think) if we dont rise up against it now. Evil will flourish when good men keep quiet.
2. wijaya | March 31st, 2008 at 12:45 am
I am very sad about this situation in Sri Lanka.But we must remember very important fact that who has created this envioment. LTTE has created this and spoiled the whole country.When LTTE set bombs every nook and corner killing hundres of innocent pepole security forcers have to take action for the safty of people in the country.So they are compelled to check every person they suspect..On the othehand I have a question to ask from the Tamils in Sri Lanka who are living in south.When LTTE blast bombs in colombo or some where killing large number of people why the tamils in colombo don’t make any voice against these baberic violence of LTTE. Are they happy when it happen killing innocent people.So the tamils in south also can orgenise some ralleis and force the LTTE to stop these violence.And see how Mr.Annada Sagaree speaks against the activites of Prabakarran.As a real politcian he knows who is resposible for creating this enviorement in Sri Lanka.Please remember if all the tamil people in the south can get together and make a effctive voice against prbakaran gun culture, then he will understand that he has to change the path towards the peace.then all the people can enjoy the life in colombo or any place in sri Lanka.And the Govt of Sri Lanka can develop the country by utilising the billions of money that used for the war .
3. Sri | March 31st, 2008 at 1:21 am
We extend our solidarity with all those
who are held in detention illegally and
call for immediate release!
4. sam | March 31st, 2008 at 6:01 am
Ronnate…. Unfortunately, you does not appear to have a touch for Journalism.
You have made an effort to apply a black coat of paint on an already known evil which is dark.
Yes. For whatever reason, your husband of arrested and no denying that. It is now left to the authorities deal with that.
But two wrongs does not make it right in that you have tried to show those “alleged” human being who are employed by the TID who conducted you & others on your visit to the detainess behaved like monsters.
Yell..shout…inhuman..laugh… ect. So, according to you the TID employs monsters.. Unfortunately, your vocabulary appear to be limited and if not I wonder to what length your exagerations would have reached.
We all admit… yes .. there is a problem.. there may be inconvenieneces and everthying does not happen according to ones wishes when you go to visit a detainee.
But you must be civilised…. Your anger & venom boiling within you because of the detention of your husband should not be transformed into an exageration and to influence the others.
Had you explained the proceedure you had to follow
and the incovenience that could have been over comed would have made much better reading.
It also would have raised your stock as a person but instead you too went down to low level to gain media milage.
Ronnate, I sympathise with you on the predicament of your husband. But, you need not have gone to such low level of propaganda as your husbands arrest was already a news item & you were fortunate.
Act in a respected manner & gain the respect.
When a dog bites you, you don’t turn around to bite the dog.
5. ilaya seran senguttuvan | March 31st, 2008 at 6:49 am
This looks like a story along the lines of the movie Schindler’s List in the background of the Nazi persecution of WW2. The only
crime young Tissanayagam seems to have committed is to have
written a Column with the current war in the background. To learn he spent nearly 20 years earlier fighting to keep many others from the claws of brutal injustice and now he suffers the same fate reminds one of Pastor Marin Neimoller’s celebrated words. He may, very likely. be released like Parameshwari - after a few months. But his spirits will be broken; his faith to live as a Tamil
in a multi-racial society will be lost. He and his young family will carry the wounds of this horror for a very long time. Detention Orders - a very serious document in any society claiming to be civilised - are now those signed by very senior Forces officials in blank by the hundreds. That is democracy
for you and me. What this lovely country and society have come to? No wonder the distinguished ladies and gentlemen of the IIGEP seem to have concluded “Sri Lanka is a lost case”
I pray for young Tissa and his family.
6. Ecvee | March 31st, 2008 at 10:10 am
Requesting the people to a bus with tires deflated is a cruel joke.
This is ‘must read’ for all freedom loving people. This is very much like what the gestaopo did in Germany under Hitler.
Will the educated Sinhala now realize that seperation is the only solution to ethnic problem
7. Winston Martin | March 31st, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Sam, you say Ronnate does not appear to have a touch for Journalism. It does not matter whether you have a flair for journalism or not. This is a story of a wife airing her suffering and anxiety regarding the plight of her husband. If you were in her position what would you say? Every day when she wakes up she is thinking and worrying about of her husband. In Sri Lanka when a person is taken in for questioning it is not normal for that person to be released after questioning. They can even kill the person and say; well after the interrogation we have released him. Probably he must have left the country with out tell anybody. It’s funny to hear this type of utterance coming from nobody but President of the country himself. So who do you believe? Every day it’s an agony for this poor woman. You are coming with garbage, you are really pathetic, you will not understand until something like this happened in your family. It could be your wife, mother, father, brother or sister if one of them under goes a similar trauma then only you will realize how hard is for the other members of the family. There are hundreds of innocent Tamils going thorough this type of harassments from the GOSL for only reason that they have a Tamil name. As long as people like you are over there our problem will never end. You will feel sorry for an animal not a fellow human being if he or she comes from a Tamil or Muslim family.
8. Seelan | April 1st, 2008 at 3:00 am
There is no race issue here.
The state was challenged by some Sinhala youth dring 1987-1990. State responded by detaining hundreds of thousands of Sinhala youth, buddhist monks etc and 60,000 of them were either killed or dissappeared. Not all of those died/dissappeared were insurgents/terrorists (whatever you call them).
Similarly, the state is challenged by some Tamils and what people experience is the same response from the state.
There is no distinction in the state’s response with regard to the two situations mentioned above. It is important to clearly understand it as it is upon all peace loving Sri Lankans (be Sinhala, Tamil or any other) to work together to find a way out.
Extreme regulations may be required to address extreme circumstances in discharging the state’s primary responsibiity in safeguarding it’s citizens. However, those responsible in implementing reguations should bear in mind that lot of innocent people could get cought in this and suffer. Therefore extreme care should be taken in discharging such duties. If the state attempts to abuse such powers then the nation should rise as one against such attempts.
To do that, the ordinary people (like many of us) requires to break barriers like race. Divided, we will perish. United, we will propsper.
9. Harshana Somapriya | April 1st, 2008 at 5:42 am
All sensible people call for the immediate release of Tissanayagam, if he is not guilty!
But, what if he is guilty?
All those suicide bombers didn’t come to Colombo alone without any other’s help.
It is not an easy job to keep Colombo safe for the ill equiped SL military/police when the bleeding Tiger has gone mad and taking civilian targets. (eg. Mount Lavinia bus bomb, bombs at Colombo & Dehiwala Railway stations…)
10. sivam | April 1st, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Is this another propaganda by LTTE? Unfortunately innocent children died in a bomb blast in colombo
cannot talk. Innocent chidren murdered by LTTE(cutting their throat) cannot have a voice. What a shame!!!
11. Venkai | April 2nd, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Comment #4
Either Sam must be working for TID, or he must be a stooge of the present Government!!
12. Venkai | April 3rd, 2008 at 7:48 pm
If we had more people like JeyP, Sri Lanka would not have decended to this state!!
Thyank you very much for the sensible statement!!
13. ilaya seran senguttuvan | April 4th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
The continued unlawful detention of Tissa, many suspect, is to justify to the world there are many Tamils giving succour to the
“terrorist” (LTTE) innocously functioning as civilians. This is simply to mitigate the flood of accusations from the outside world about the excesses of the armed forces against non-combatant Tamil civilians and the many mass arrests of Tamils in Colombo along
Nazi Jewish scenes. This poor young man and his young family - not to mention the parents involved - are made to suffer for the Govt’s propagada purposes. Many people in the country probably are unaware international organisations are already collecting dossiers on potential perpetrators of “War crimes” from Sri Lanka. People placed very high in the political structure are providing the material to these agencies - as was speculated in the European Press, when a former VVIP from Sri Lanka recently visited
several international bodies the party, under normal circumstances, had no reason to nor would have been allowed to attend.
14. jake milton | April 10th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Sam actually made a sarcastic comment. Read the last line of his comment.. I agree with him that the Sinhala (read Sri Lankan) forces have the same attitude as mad dogs… After all, Sinhalese boast they are the children of singha (animal). (my apologies to my Sinhalese friends)
Everyone seems to ignore the fact behind the prolonged detention of Tissa. They thought this poor guy must be rich because he was getting foreign funds.. No point in fighting the case on the basis of demorcratic rights.. Just start your bargain with their asking price and prepare to sell your property and family silver to pay them.Since you are a Tamil this is the only option in SL.
Mr. Percy Mahendra Rajapakse, the true Buddhist in the world will show mercy once you paid money to his guardians of justice (Sri Lankan style).
My kudos to Tamil diaspora for being too busy arranging prayer meetings for the deceased “Mamanithar”( great man). They really don’t have time to consider these minor things.
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