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by Ranga Jayasuriya

Former Acting Prisons Commissioner of the Welikada prison C.T. Jansz told the Truth Commission that prison officers were unable to quell violence at the Welikada Prison in 1983 due to their lack of previous experience in anti-riots activities .

Lack of previous experience in such situations and the speed that the violence spread in the prison made the riot uncontrollable, he said.

The Truth Commission resumed public sittings yesterday at the BMICH, where C.T. Jansz testified. Jansz who was in charge of the Welikada Prison at the time of the massacre said prison officers were normally armed with batons and a whistle - to inform others when there is an emergency - and not with automatic weapons. The Army officers who were to be summoned at special circumstances were outside the gate, he said. "They were armed", he added.

Asked whether the prisoners had free access to the kitchen appliances such as knives in the prison, he said an officer or a trustee prisoner is in charge of them.

The equipment is locked in a cupboard when they are not used, he said. But, he accepted the possibility of the cupboard been forced opened at the time of a riot.

Asked whether it was through the media that the prisoners came to know the anti- Tamil campaign which was spreading throughout the country, Jansz said the prisoners could see everything going in the city through the second floor of the prison. "And they had visitors regularly, through whom they could be informed about the situation in the country", he added.

Asked whether the riot was spontaneous, he said: "according to my experience in the field, prison riots are not spontaneous. They are organised by some leaders".

Jansz said some precautionary measures were taken after the first attacks on Tamil political prisoners took place on July 25. The rest of Tamil prisoners were moved to a much secured "Y- O block" with more jailor guards for their security. But they were attacked again on July 27.

He said that he informed the then President about the situation after the first riots and arranged to move the Tamil prisoners to the Jaffna Prison. But, the second attack took place before the plan was carried out.

The Commission was presided by a three judge panel headed by retired Chief justice Suppayya Sarwananda. President Counsel M.M. Suhair and Sathiyoga Sasitha Sahabandu were the other members. State Counsel A.H.M. de Navaz led the evidence.

The commission will resume sittings on November 15. The Truth Commission was appointed by president Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga to investigate into the anti-Tamil riots of July, 1983 and find suitable measures for national reconciliation.

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