COLOMBO — A Tamil opposition lawmaker on Tuesday accused successive Sri Lankan governments of applying double standards to prison violence, saying that past massacres of Tamil political prisoners had never been fully investigated, while lawmakers now demanded accountability for the recent killings at Negombo Prison.
P. Sathiyalingam, a member of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), made the remarks during a parliamentary debate, where he expressed condolences to the families of the prison officers and inmates killed in last week's violence at Negombo Prison.
Referring to earlier incidents involving Tamil detainees, Mr. Sathiyalingam said the country had yet to answer longstanding questions surrounding the deaths of dozens of Tamil political prisoners.
He cited the killing of 53 Tamil political prisoners at Welikada Prison during the anti-Tamil violence of July 1983, the deaths of three Tamil political prisoners at Kalutara Prison on Dec. 12, 1997, and the killing of 27 Tamil detainees at the Bindunuwewa detention centre in 2000.
"Today, everyone in this House is speaking about the killings at Negombo and asking who should be held responsible," he said. "But no answers have ever been given about the massacres that took place 43 years ago. Who committed those killings? Were they identified? Were they punished? Or were measures taken to ensure that such incidents would never happen again?"
Mr. Sathiyalingam said those who had failed to act after the killings of Tamil political prisoners at Welikada Prison were now calling for action over the Negombo violence.
"At least now, this government must take the necessary steps to ensure that prisoners are never massacred again," he said.
He ended with a reference familiar to many Tamil speakers, quoting a line popularized by the comedian Vadivelu: "When it happens to me, it's blood; when it happens to you, it's tomato chutney" — a comic expression commonly invoked to criticize hypocrisy and selective outrage.
