Batalanda detention centre

The Batalanda Detention Centre was an alleged detention centre in Butalanda which was used to torture and exterminate members of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) during the JVP uprising of 1988–1989, who launched a second armed revolt against the then elected UNP (United National Party) government led by President Ranasinghe Premadasa.

Unlike in the previous uprising, the JVP relied heavily on the use of assassinations of important religious and political figures, subversion, and terror attacks. The government responded just as brutally; the government has been accused of using detention camps in several locations, including Batalanda, to quell the JVP uprising. The camps were said to be run by anti-subversive units of the police who were tasked with destroying rebels.[1][2][3][4][5]

It is believed that nearly 5,000 to 10,000 JVP activists were brutally tortured and killed in the Batalanda camp alone.[6] Incumbent President and current leader of the UNP Ranil Wickremesinghe has been accused of being the political authority behind the alleged detention centre. The Batalanda commission was appointed by the government of Chandrika Kumaratunga to look into the violations of human rights and crimes committed in the Batalanda torture and detention centre. In its report, the commission recommended the government to take legal action against then-opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and to strip him of his civic rights, which would have made him ineligible to run for elections. No legal action has been taken against Wickremesinghe by any government to date, however, and many who were arrested for their involvement in the alleged killings have been revealed to be from organizations such as the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party, a political party founded in 1984 by Kumaratunga and her husband, Vijaya Kumaratunga, who was assassinated by the JVP in 1988.[7][8]

References
  1. "Sri Lankan government exploits allegations of murder and torture against opposition - World Socialist Web Site". wsws.org. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  2. Commissions of inquiry in Sri Lanka
  3. "Atrocities of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) or". www.tchr.net. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
  4. "Anura Kumara apologises in London for JVP's 1988-89 terror". www.sundayobserver.lk. Archived from the original on 1 October 2016. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
  5. "JVP says Matale mass grave has remains of 200 torture victims ::. Latest Sri Lanka News". 6 February 2013. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
  6. "Demons of Batalanda: Who was behind them? - LNW Today". www.lankanewsweb.today. Archived from the original on 2 October 2016. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
  7. "Vijaya assassination: Politics kills police professionalism".
  8. "Lalith Athulathmudali's Assassination –Fact or Fiction?".

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