Canadian Member of Parliament Rathika Sitsabaiesan has stated that she was trailed and privately interrogated by Sri Lankan authorities, during a recent trip to her place of birth in the Tamil North-East of the island.
In her first interview since her arrival back in Canada, Sitsabaiesan told The Star how motorbikes followed her whilst she visited various places across the North-East, and on one occasion, three men took her into a room by herself, interrogating her on details of people she had been meeting during her trip.
Initially, as Sitsabaiesan began to realise her movements were being tracked, she said,
“And then the next day it happened, and we were like ‘Oh, this is a constant thing.’ And then outside my hotel, they would just hang out and give word when I left.”
She went on to tell The Star of how whilst visiting an orphanage, she was informed that the Sri Lankan authorities had arrived and with an apparent warrant for her arrest.
“We were like, ‘Holy wow, they actually showed up.’ And there was no reason for them to show up, because there was no reason for them to have an arrest warrant,” Sitsabaiesan recalled.
She managed to slip away into a nearby hotel, where she contacted the Canadian government stayed put for the next day, sparking reports about her unofficial house arrest. Only after receiving confirmation from both Canada and Sri Lanka that she had no warrant for her arrest, she took to leaving the hotel. But it wasn’t long before the Sri Lankan authorities caught up with her.
Whilst visiting a factory, three men who identified themselves as immigration officers arrived. They took her by herself, into a private space and began interrogating her.
“They wanted a space where it was private and nobody else was allowed in. They were standing in the doorway, and it was me and these three men,” said Sitsabaiesan.
“They had a list of exactly what I’ve been doing, and they go, ‘You did this, you did that, you met with this person, you did this, who is this person, why, give me names, give me contacts, give me this and that.’ ”
Commenting on her experience, Sitsabaiesan was mindful of her privileges as a Canadian MP, noting,
“That’s the reality for people in that country. I just had a small taste of it”.