Petition against alleged ‘forced registration’

22 February 2011 06:15 pm

A group of TNA Parliamentarians today filed a fundamental rights violation petition seeking to stop what they called ‘forced registration’ of residents of Jaffna and Kilinochchi districts allegedly by the Security Forces.

Jaffna district Parliamentarians Mavai Senathirajah, Suresh Premachandran, Appathurai Vinayagamoorthy and Eswarapatham Saravanapavan as well as the Kilinochchi district Parliamentarian Sivagnanam Shritharan filed their petition through Attorney Mohan Balendra.

They cited Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Jaffna Security Forces Commander Mahinda Hathurusinghe, Army Spokesman Udaya Madawala, Jaffna Government Agent Ms Imelda Sukumar and the Attorney General as Respondents.

They are seeking immediate termination of alleged forced registration and the practice of photographing and obtaining Rs 100 from residents in Jaffna and Kilinochchi, particularly the residents of the Kilinochchi district who were allegedly forced to sign forms printed and written in Sinhala.

They complain that the stigmatization through the singling out the residents of Jaffna and Kilinochchi districts from citizens of the entire country amounts to degrading treatment, especially when such singling out results in resembling the treatment of common criminals and thus amounts to a violation of the right to freedom from degrading treatment under the Constitution. (SSS)