{"id":38061,"date":"2012-04-11T08:17:50","date_gmt":"2012-04-11T08:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=38061"},"modified":"2012-04-11T08:50:54","modified_gmt":"2012-04-11T08:50:54","slug":"gunaratnam-claims-sri-lankan-agents-sexually-tortured-him-sydney-morning-herald","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gunaratnam-claims-sri-lankan-agents-sexually-tortured-him-sydney-morning-herald\/","title":{"rendered":"Gunaratnam Claims Sri Lankan Agents Sexually Tortured Him &#8211; Sydney Morning Herald"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By\u00a0Leesha McKenny, Dylan Welch &#8211;\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_38062\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gunaratnam-claims-sri-lankan-agents-sexually-tortured-him-sydney-morning-herald\/gunarathnam_slart_\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-38062\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38062\" class=\"size-full wp-image-38062\" title=\"gunarathnam_slart_\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/gunarathnam_slart_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"268\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-38062\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#39;I would have been killed&#39;&#39; ... Premakumar Gunaratnam with his wife and children in a family photo taken last year. Photo: Kate Geraghty<\/p><\/div>\n<p>THE Australian man abducted in Sri Lanka over the weekend has contradicted the claims of the Colombo government, claiming it abducted him, and were it not for Canberra&#8217;s intervention he would have faced certain death.<\/p>\n<p>Premakumar Gunaratnam, a 42-year-old Sri Lankan left wing politician who moved to Australia in 2006, held a press conference at his house in Sydney&#8217;s north this afternoon, after leaving Sri Lanka yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>He said that he was handcuffed, blindfolded and physically and sexually tortured during his three day detention.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have no doubt that if I didn&#8217;t have the Australian government&#8217;s support I would have been killed just like my brother and hundreds of other political activists and journalists have been killed,&#8221; Mr Gunaratnam said at his Dural home at about 2.30pm.<\/p>\n<p>His claims will put pressure on the Sri Lankan government, who at first said they were unaware of Mr Gunaratnam&#8217;s presence in their country, and once he was located stated categorically that they had played no role in his disappearance.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Sri Lankan authorities never arrested that person,&#8221; the Sri Lankan High Commissioner in Canberra, Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe, told Fairfax media on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Disputing that contention, Mr Gunaratnam said: &#8220;I can confirm I was abducted by the Sri Lankan government forces, blindfolded and tortured. This includes, I am embarrassed to say, sexual torture.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He called on the international community to acknowledge what he says are ongoing human rights violations in Sri Lanka being commited by the govenrment of Mahinda Rajapaksa.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If everyone ignores the human rights violations in Sri Lanka then the Rajapaksa regime will continue the dictatorial regime abducting and killing people who speak out,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The free-thinking world should take a stance against (these) gross human rights violations.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Comment is being sought from the Sri Lankan government.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":38062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2201],"tags":[2463,2504,2465],"class_list":["post-38061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-from-foreign-media","tag-premkumar-gunaratnam-latest","tag-premkumar-gunaratnam-tortured","tag-premkumar-gunaratnam-updates"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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