Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA), a Colombo-based think-tank, and the Free Media Movement (FMM), a media watch group in Colombo, are considering taking legal action against Sri Lanka authorities for the mass arrest of more than 2000 Tamils in suburbs of Colombo this week, media reports in Colombo said. The arrests were made after the Government of Sri Lanka accused the Liberation Tigers of carrying out the two bomb attacks that killed 21 people and injured more than 40 in Colombo.
"The CPA will seek court intervention on behalf of the people who were subjected to cruel and degrading treatment," AFP reported quoting a CPA spokesman.
The Free Media Movement earlier said Tamil civilians with all necessary identification and documentation were still in detention. "The manner in which the arrests are being conducted and that they target a specific ethnic community are extremely worrying," the FMM said in a statement.
The expulsion was internationally condemned as collective punishment of Tamils for the work of Tamil Tiger rebels, AFP said in its report.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International in a press release issued Wednesday, said: "Amnesty International condemns the mass arrests of more than 1000 Tamils by the Sri Lankan police, allegedly in response to the suicide bombings carried out in Colombo on 28 November 2007, for which the government has blamed the Liberation
