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Commanders<br />
Witnesses say the naval intelligence officer running the site initially until 2010<br />
was Lt Commander Welagedara. A Lt Commander Ranasinghe then took over<br />
the running of the site, according to survivors. Lt Commander K C Welagedara<br />
has been described in the local media in Sri Lanka as a staff officer of the<br />
marine intelligence unit, allegedly involved in human trafficking to Australia 58 .<br />
In August 2012 he was awarded a long service medal 59 . His officer number is:<br />
NRX 1583.<br />
In addition, ITJP has the names and ranks of 10 other navy members whom<br />
survivors state were involved in torture in this site and the details of an officer<br />
and other guards present who were fully aware of the torture going on.<br />
Release<br />
The detainees interviewed were released to a rehabilitation site only after their<br />
relatives had paid large sums of money as a bribe or ransom to the navy. On<br />
release the witnesses were given express orders by naval intelligence officer, Lt<br />
Commander Ranasinghe, not to tell anyone, including other members of the<br />
security forces or rehabilitation services, that they had been held in the Naval<br />
Dockyard. Their official release documents do not mention that they were<br />
detained for many years in Trincomalee Naval Dockyards.<br />
Corroboration<br />
Various witnesses have provided our investigators with a number of<br />
photographs clearly depicting those witnesses, many of their captors and this<br />
site during their detention.<br />
58 Hendavitharana masterminded Australia human trafficking! LankaNewsWeb, 25 February 2015.<br />
59 The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Number 1774/1, 3 September 2012, accessed at<br />
http://www.documents.gov.lk/Extgzt/2012/PDF/Sep/1774_01/1774_01%20(E).pdf<br />
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