Sri Lankan Catholic priest and human rights activist arrested

March 17, 2014 - In northern Sri Lanka, a Catholic priest and a human rights activist were arrested on Sunday by the Kilinochchi anti-terrorism police. Oblate of Mary Immaculate priest Fr. Praveen, director of the Centre for Peace and Reconciliation in Jaffna, and Ruki Fernando, special advisor of the Center for human rights documentation, are in detention in Colombo. The police deny the detention of the two, but Fr. Ashok Stephen, who works with Fr. Praveen, confirmed the arrest to AsiaNews. In fact Ruki Fernando warned some friends of their arrest, via text message. Fr. Ashok, who is also a lawyer asked for the whereabouts of Fr. Praveen and was said the two are not being held in custody in Colombo. The arrest was also confirmed by Fr. Rohan Silva, provincial of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Colombo.
Local sources have told AsiaNews that the two Catholics were arrested by a dozen police officers for visiting Darmapuram (Kilinochchi), where on March 15 police arrested a Tamil woman, Balendran Jeyakumari, and her 13 year old daughter. Jeyakumari is a human rights activist with the group, Families of the Disappeared. She herself has lost her husband and two grown sons, who were killed during the civil war. A third child disappeared into thin air in 2009, at the end of the conflict. (Source: AsiaNews)