Stop-Torture-Report

(Witness 90)
However the informers are not just villagers who report on their neighbours’
movements. Hundreds of former LTTE cadres have been coerced into becoming
informers for the security forces, after being tortured or threatened with
torture. They have now been released into the community – and some sent
overseas – to spy on their fellow Tamils for the Sri Lankan state 81 .
“The Army and CID were using cadres they had captured and they put them
back into the Tamil community to identify other cadres. Then they would round
them up. I did not personally see this but it was accepted as common
knowledge.”
(Witness 12 discussing aftermath of war and resettlement from Manik Farm)
Informers undermine the cohesion of a community already traumatised by
decades of conflict and senseless violence. They spread fear, distrust and
betrayal at a time when gaping and festering divides need to be healed.
Informers also hack at the fabric of the community, heaping trauma upon an
already traumatised community.
Many witnesses who surrendered at the end of the war at the Wadduvakal
Bridge or at Omanthai Checkpoint report being identified by informers, like this
forced underage recruit to the LTTE, who was then forced to work for the Sri
Lankan military as an informant himself:
“I was given sunglasses and a hat for a disguise so that the cadres would not
identify me.”
(Witness 18 on being forced to work as an informer)
The extent of the Sri Lanka security forces’ use of Tamil informers in the postwar
period does not appear to be widely known. Many victims have assumed
81 ITJP-SL has the name and photograph of one such active Tamil (ex LTTE) informer for the Sri Lankan security forces now in Canada.
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