Verification of incident at Welikade Prison (in/near Colombo) in 1983 where approximately 50 prisoners were killed by Sinhalese prisoners and whether Jeyasingham Ariyaratnam may have been on list of those Tamils killed. [LKA7626]

Detailed information contained in the enclosed documents confirms that 50 or more Tamils prisoners were killed by Sinhalese prisoners in Welikade Prison in 1983. Jeyasingham Ariyaratnam does not appear to be on the list of the Tamils murdered in the Welikade Prison in July 1983. The attached documents are:

University of New South Wales. 1985. Democracy in Peril: Sri Lanka: A Country in Crisis. A Report to the LAWASIA Human Rights Standing Committee by Patricia Hyndman.

East, Rogers, ed. Keesing's Record of World Events 1984. Vol.30. London: Longman Group UK Ltd., 1984.

Tamils Times. July 1983, Vol. 11, No. 9. "Sri Lanka - Barbarism Back With Vengeance: The July Massacre and After".

Amnesty International. Amnesty International Report 1984, London: Amnesty International Publications, 1984.