Stop-Torture-Report

The term “secret site” has been used loosely with regard to Sri Lanka to
describe a situation where the detainee has been taken blindfolded to a place
that is unknown to him or her 57 . Considerable efforts were made by the security
forces to keep the location of the camps secret from the person being tortured,
while at the same time showing little or no concern over whether their own
identities were hidden from the victim.
In An Unfinished War: Torture and Sexual Violence in Sri Lanka 2009-2014, the
majority of detainees did not know where they had been held. However, some
of them gave detailed descriptions of camps that appeared to be military sites,
with check points and speed bumps at the entrance and multiple men in
military uniforms present. It is reasonable to presume that these are not secret
sites at all, but established army camps, whose identity is only kept secret from
the detainee being tortured.
The case of the Trincomalee Naval Dockyard is somewhat different, in that the
detainees knew where they were being held, but according to their accounts
considerable efforts were made to hide their location from their family
members, the authorities and other branches and members of the security
forces. However, no attempt was made to hide the location of the site from the
detainees themselves over the years they spent there.
This secret torture site run by naval intelligence was hidden in the junglecovered
hills of the Trincomalee Naval Dockyards compound (GPS: 8’33’26’13 N,
81’14’32’87 E). The detention buildings were clustered around an old colonial
artillery point. One detention site included small cement cells in an
underground bunker and there was another area for holding prisoners above
ground.
The detainees were blindfolded on the way in and their families were never told
where they were being held, despite repeated requests to the authorities,
57 In the BBC Sinhala Service story on the Amnesty report it says the human rights group had named seven secret sites - Poonthottam
Maha Vidyalaya, 211 Brigade headquarters, Vallikulam Maha Vidyalaya, the PLOTE paramilitary detention centre (known as Mallar
Maligai) and Dharmapuram as five camps in Vavuniya while two camps were named from Mullaitivu. This is a misreading of the
Amnesty report, which is clear that Poonthottam and Vallikulam camps are “rehabilitation centres”. In addition 211 Brigade
Headquarters in Vavuniya is the Vanni Security Force Headquarters, also known as JOSEPH Camp (Joint Operational Security Force
Headquarters). JOSEPH camp is notorious in Sri Lanka as a torture site but it is not a secret site.
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