Tuesday, 24 January 2012, 12:17

A Forwarded message
— On Tue, 24/1/12, Charles wrote:

As you can see from the email below, there is a very
tense situation prevailing in Welikada prison today. Even though it has
nothing to do with the Tamil detainees, it has the potential to spill over
and end up in Tamil inmates being attacked as in the past . I think we
need to alert all interested foreign agencies to give it publicity as
it is not public knowledge yet.
To confirm the facts I have, there is a tense situation at the Welikada
prison today following a tour by the prison general with the new
superintendent. Some inmates attacked both men as they were leaving
the prison area, apparently an office was set on fire.
The political prisoners have stayed in their ward and are currently
frightened in case the situation deteriorates.xxx asked me to inform the
Embassy of xxxxx so that you are aware of the situation. It seems the army
is on standby outside the prison currently.
Could you please request the Honorary Consul to visitxxx once the relevant
clearance has been given?
As you can imagine it is very difficult for us hearing news of this
incident as in the past we are all too well aware of what has transpired.
Having you return my call provides us with a huge comfort in such a
situation as we know we are not alone thank you.
I will of course update you should there be any further developments.
Sincere thanks and regards,
Further to my earlier email, I would like to clarify that the reason the
political prisoners are frightened is because shots have been fired within
the prison by the authorities to quell the disturbance. In the past this has
turned nasty on the Tamil detainees.
Further update on the tense situation at Welikada prison. The situation
remains out of control with convicted prisoners roaming the corridors freely
with knives, stones, sticks and other make shift weapons. Tear gas has been
fired and this has effected the Tamil detainees. There is no security
personnel around the area. Apparently the area is quite open so the tear gas
will easily effect all the people inside the area.
The Tamil detainees have been urged by the other prisoners to join in but
they remain within their own area not wanting any trouble. They are scared
of the prisoners roaming about freely with weapons.