International Worker No 239, Saturday, September 13, 1997 Sri Lankan Trotskyist thanks those who campaigned for his release from concentration camp On August 15, the Socialist Equality Party of Sri Lanka held a meeting in the Government Clerical Services Union Auditorium in the capital city, Colombo, to welcome the release from police custody of Selliah Rajkumar. The Tamil Trotskyist had spent more than a year in a state concentration camp. It was the first of a series of such meetings to be held throughout the country. Speaking at the meeting Rajkumar explained in detail the torturous methods used by the police and the authorities at the detention camp, officially named as a "rehabilitation camp" to brain-wash and break the will power of the inmates. His speech in Tamil was translated into Sinhala. Rajkumar said: "Today I have this opportunity to speak to you because you all, together with the Socialist Equality Party and the International Committee of the Fourth International, fought a successful battle for my release. "The day I was released, in a meeting with the members of the SEP, I told them that grass would have grown over my grave by now if not for the struggle waged by the ICFI and the SEP on my behalf. I did not say that to please anybody; it is the transparent truth. "As a result of the war in the North my family became refugees. That is the fate not only of my family but of hundreds of thousands of Tamil families. Today the children are separated from their parents; relations are separated from one another; families are disintegrated. The main reason for this is the war carried out by the capitalist regimes. "When the `Reviresa' military operation was launched in November 1995 my parents and family members shifted to Vavuniya as refugees. I travelled from Udappuwa, where I was working, to see them. I was arrested on my way there. Thinking of taking a bus to Anuradhapura, I mistakenly got into a bus that was going to Arunapura. There I was taken into custody by police and kept in a police cell at Aralaganwila. "The policemen at that police station were skilled torturers. They rubbed chilli powder on my face and eyes. My head was forced into a polythene bag filled with petrol. Hair on my private parts was pulled out. These are only some of the sadistic methods they used on me. At the time, from my police cell, I wrote about this torture to the SEP and this was published in the party press here as well as internationally. I was afraid that the police would come to know of my letters and would result in them intensifying the torture. "Those who tortured me did not take any interest in the explanations I gave about my journey. This is how they talked to me: 'You dirty Tamil. This is our country, the country of the Sinhalese. Only Sinhalese can live in this country. Why were you travelling in this part of the country?' They did not say or pose anything else to me. 3,000 in police custody "As far as I know more than 3,000 are in police custody in this manner. There are fathers who had been engaged in arranging the marriages of their daughters. There are youths who had been the sole bread winners of their families. There are students and even children at the age of 10 or 11 languishing in police custody. "When I was kept in Aralaganwila police station almost every night I was asked to clean the carcasses of the animals the policemen brought in after illegally hunting in the surrounding jungles. Every morning I was taken to the compound and was asked to cut the logs of firewood for the policemen's households. During my stay there I must have cut firewood to fill more than five lorry loads. Not only that, I was also ordered to work in various places to build bunkers for the security of policemen. Under these conditions I could not get proper sleep on any night. "Because of this torture now I have many physical problems. I cannot sit in one place for more than 15 minutes. I cannot stand for a long time either. I was a healthy and strong fisherman before this arrest. I am sure you all will realise from this experience, the devastation carried out under the Peoples Alliance regime -- not for hundreds but for thousands of youth in this country. "Through my experiences I also found out the total fraud of the work carried out by the so-called Human Rights organisations like International Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations Human Rights Commission. These institutions are only to cover-up the atrocities committed by the regimes against the human beings. Forced confessions "At the police station they tried on several occasions to force me to confess to being a terrorist. I told them each time that I belonged to the SEP and its forerunner, the Revolutionary Communist League, and I had no connection with any terrorist organisation. To insist on this I was strengthened by the firm stand taken by the SEP and the ICFI on my behalf. Even the sworn affidavit sent by the secretary of the SEP, Wije Dias, to confirm my membership in the SEP was arbitrarily rejected by the police. "But I found that the physical violence used against me gradually receded. That happened only due to the powerful campaign waged by the SEP and the International Committee. There can be no doubt about that. "By the time I was arrested, I had been a member of the Revolutionary Communist League for a year. During this time, I learned about the nature of the capitalist system, its state, its violence against the people, the collaboration of the treacherous leaderships with the reactionary forces, the tasks of the working class and the need for the revolutionary party. During my stay under arrest and detention I became more and more convinced of the correctness of what I was taught by the party. "After I was released from the rehabilitation camp in Bandarawela, I visited the office of the SEP and returned to my village, Udappuwa. There I was greeted by more than 200 people, organised by the SEP into a meeting. I realised this as a great change achievement by the SEP in that area. I say this because nobody from my village came to see me when I was at Aralaganwila police station a few months back. "Maybe this was due to the fears they had about the state repression. But for over 200 of them to gather into a public meeting to greet me is a change of great importance. This signifies the decisiveness and fruitfulness of the bold initiatives taken by the revolutionary party to dispel the submissiveness inflicted upon the masses. Brain-washing "From the police station I was transferred to the so-called rehabilitation centre at Bandarewela. The SEP correctly characterised this rehabilitation as a form of brain-washing. I had first hand experience that confirmed this characterisation. At that camp what the authorities drive into the minds of the inmates is the socially necessary and justifiable role played by the police and the armed forces of the capitalist state. Those who give lectures to us insisted that there is no connection between the PA regime and the police atrocities committed against the people. From the little knowledge I gathered from the party, I know that all these concepts are totally false and reactionary. "My critical approach to these sermons dished out at this torture chamber developed in me a hostile attitude, even towards the conciliatory attitude shown sometimes by the authorities with regard to my physical ailments and their offers to provide medical treatment. I thought to myself: `If they do not allow even my party comrades to see me, how could I accept any sympathy shown to me by them?' I refused to see any doctors as a mark of protest against the ban imposed on the SEP members meeting me. This was a position I took under conditions where I had no chance of directly getting in touch with the party. But I do not regret my decision. I also must happily say now that the party has already taken adequate steps to medically check my physical conditions and provide the necessary treatments. "It is true that I am now released as a result of the international campaign waged by the International Committee of the Fourth International. But in relation to the achievement of the democratic rights of the masses we still have a long way to go. Since I was detained many military operations have taken place in the North and East. I still do not know the whereabouts of my mother and my relatives. Tens of thousands of people are in this situation. "We must face the challenge point blank. How can we get rid of this unbearable social misery? It is as clear as daylight that there exists no solution under the capitalist system and its rule. This is where the perspective and programme of the SEP and the International Committee becomes relevant and indispensable. "I am more convinced today, than before my arrest, that it is through the building of the internationalist party of socialist revolution that we all can live a happy life. For that we must fight for a workers' and peasants' government that will overthrow the profit system and use all the technical achievements of mankind for the benefit of mankind." The general secretary of the SEP, Wije Dias, made the summing up speech at the meeting, which was chaired by W.A. Sunil of the SEP Central Committee.

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