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‘No clothes, No proper food’

11 Jul 2021

  • Stalin alleges poor conditions for protesters in quarantine

By Dinitha Rathnayake   Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU) General Secretary Joseph Stalin told The Morning that his fellow protestors and himself had not been provided clothing or proper food at the Sri Lanka Navy’s Mullaitivu camp, where they are undergoing quarantine. Speaking to The Morning, Stalin said that they had to wear bedsheets during their stay at the quarantine centre, since they did not have clothes to change into. “Minister Sarath Weerasekara said in Parliament that the people who were sent to quarantine were sent according to proper health recommendations. Those were lies! How could they make a health recommendation without even having been checked by a Public Health Inspector (PHI)? We were given toothpaste by a monk. We were not given any clothes. These people had to wear bedsheets since morning. The Police said everything they need is in the quarantine centre,” he said. “Minister Weerasekera says the Negombo Police gave us medicine. We were stopped at the Chilaw Police Station and given a quarter-loaf of bread and a banana. It was union members in the Mullaitivu area that bought us clothes. One of those arrested needed an inhaler, but the Negombo Police refused to get one, claiming that it cost Rs. 1,200,” Stalin said. Last Thursday (8), the Police arrested over 45 people for engaging in demonstrations and protests in violation of a Covid-19-related ban on protests and public meetings, among which were 31 people, including Stalin, arrested over a protest held at the Parliament roundabout in Sri Jayawardenapura, Kotte, against the proposed General Sir John Kotelawala National Defence University (KNDU) Bill. The protest was jointly organised by the Inter-University Students Federation (IUSF), the Sri Lanka Teachers’ Union, and the Frontline Socialist Party. Stalin, who is currently undergoing quarantine at the Mullaitivu Air Force Base, said that the group of protestors had been forcibly taken to the facility from Court premises on Thursday, even though the Magistrate said she had no powers to order them to be quarantined. “No PHI came to investigate us. We were forcibly taken to the quarantine centre by the Police,” Stalin said. Meanwhile, the Progressive Women’s Collective (PWC) called upon the Government to immediately cease using Covid-related guidelines as a means of suppressing dissent, and to release all those who have been forcibly quarantined. “We urge fellow activists and citizens to stand firmly together at this moment and resist these contemptuous efforts to limit our democratic rights. We stand behind our comrades who are currently forcibly detained under quarantine regulations, and are determined to fight for their release.” The Ministry of Health banned protests and public meetings until further notice on 6 July to prevent large gatherings and the further spread of Covid-19.


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