Aid Workers Taken In To Custody In Sri Lanka

Tamil Doctors' 40 Days In Custody And Two UN Staff Taken In To Custody In Sri Lanka

Drs. Sathiaymmorthy, Varatharaja and Shanmugarajah, the three doctors who served the many thousands of civilians stranded in the “no fire zone” in NorthEast Sri Lanka under the most difficult conditions and have been hailed by the UN as heroes are now detained by Sri Lankan government for over 40 days without any judicial recourse.

Australasian Federation of Tamil Association appeals to the New Zealand Foreign Minister Hon Murray McCully and his counterpart Australian Hon Stephen Smith to use their good offices to urge the Sri Lankan President to release these doctors immediately unless they are promptly charged with a crime.

AFTA also would like to bring to the attention of both the Australian and New Zealand governments and the media that the United Nations has said on 20th of June 2009 that two of its employees working among tens of thousands of war-displaced civilians had been arrested by Sri Lankan authorities. According to UN staff they are now being detained and tortured at a Sri Lankan Military Intelligence interrogation camp in Kurumankadu, Vavuniya.

ENDS

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