Protest at the quarantine centre

By Dinasena Ratugamage

President of the Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) Priyantha Fernando yesterday said that the Army and the Police on Thursday had obstructed them when they went to Mullaitivu to hand over food and other items to CTU General Secretary Joseph Stalin and others detained at the Air Force run quarantine centre there.

Stalin and 31 others were detained last week for holding a demonstration against the proposed Kotelawala Defence University and were sent to the quarantine centre in Mullaitivu.

Fernando said that representatives of CTU branches in Anuradhapura and Vavuniya and several other unions had left for the quarantine centre. However, security forces had stopped them and only allowed five people to go to the quarantine centre.

“Even the five of us couldn’t meet Stalin and others. We had to hand over what we took, to the security forces. About 100 troops surrounded us. However, it was also obvious that they did not want to make life hard for us but they were following orders of their superiors,” Fernando said.

He said that they wouldn’t have tried to see Stalin and others if there had been any health risk. PCR tests conducted on those detained at the centre had proved negative and some of the detainees had been fully inoculated, Fernando said.

Those detained at the Air Force quarantine centre continue to protest, demanding their release. After holding another demonstration on Friday, Stalin said that if they were not released immediately, they would intensify the demonstrations inside the SLAF camp where they were undergoing quarantine.

“We will continue to oppose this Bill. There will be demonstrations everyday across the country against this,” he said.

Stalin and others were released from quarantine yesterday evening. (See related story on page one.)