Those killed included Naresh Rajadurai, a video shop owner in Colombo s Wellawatte suburb. The Magistrate said that the absence of the Attorney General s Department was an obstruction of justice. Human rights agencies say the manifest reluctance on the part of the state s law enforcement authorities in such an important case encourages impunity. Over 300 Tamils were arrested in Colombo on 2 April in search operations.
Police say they had all arrived in the city recently from the north-east.
The government suspects many Black Tiger suicide members are hidden among the 150,000 Tamil refugees in Colombo. Tamil MP Joseph Pararajasingham says 1,700 Tamil youths are currently in detention suspected of LTTE links. The youths say in a letter to Mr Pararajasingham that they were assaulted after arrest and forced to sign confessions in the Sinhala language. None of them has been produced before a court. Eighty nine others also arrested in Jaffna and sent to Colombo in December 1996 are expected to be produced before the Anuradhapura courts in early April.