ELIYAKANDA TORTURE CAMP- K POINT SINHALA ORIGINAL BY ROHITHA MUNASINGHE ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY BHADRAJI MAHINDA JAYATILAKA
ELIYAKANDA TORTURE CAMP- K POINT – SINHALA ORIGINAL BY ROHITHA MUNASINGHE
ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY BHADRAJI MAHINDA JAYATILAKA
It is a well-known fact, that the UNP government had established several torture camps around the island of Sri Lanka and within these had tortured and murdered about 60,000 young men and women in order to subdue the struggle initiated by the Patriotic People’s Organization (Deshapremi Janatha Viyaparaya) in 1987-89. Among these torture camps the one at Eliyakanda, Matara was notorious and the most heinous and deadliest of all.
A person who had been tortured within this torture camp’s fences manged to escape alive and had emigrated to France and received political asylum there. He then wrote and published a book about his experiences revealing information about Weligama Army Torture Camp, Eliyakande Torture Camp, Boosa Retaining Center Camp and Koggala Rehabilitation Camp.
The book was titled K POINT or ELIYAKANDA TORTURE CAMP. K POINT refers to Kill Point or killing point.
Since this was the only book written about torture camps, when it was published in 2000, it created a great stir within the country. Its first print was published by S. Godage Brothers and the subsequent 2nd and 3rd prints were published by Sarasavi Publishers Ltd.
Mr. Sunil Madhawa Premathilaka, a senior journalist as well as a political friend of the writer suggested this be translated into English and the translation was done by a famous, talented author, Bhadraji Mahinda Jayatilaka and is now published by S. Godage Brothers.
This is a valuable book to those who are keenly interested in politics and human rights.