Rajamani Gunaratnam, mother of Frontline Socialist Party Premkumar Gunaratnam, has sought the intervention of President Maithripala Sirisena to sort the issue of her son’s Sri Lankan citizenship.
She has, in a letter to the President, written as follows –
“I am an 80-year-old retired school teacher. I was born in Undugoda in Kegalle and married to Aadimoolam Pillai Gunaratnam born in Jaffna. The fourth child of our marriage is Premakumar Gunaratnam and he was taken into custody on Nov. 04, 2015 and currently held at the Kegalle Remand Prison. Premakumar was born on Nov. 18, 1965 at the Kegalle Government hospital and received his primary education at the St Mary’s College in Kegalle and secondary education from the Pinnawala Central College. He was a student at the Engineering Faculty of the University of Peradeniya.
“My eldest son Ranjithan Gunaratnam, too, was a student at the Engineering Faculty of the Peradeniya University and was also the convener of the Inter University Students’ Federation. While he was engaged in political activities he was abducted in December 1989. We have not received any information about him ever since and not even received a death certificate. Both my sons were taken into custody and were held at detention centers several times.
“Premakumar resumed his political activities since the beginning of 1990s and following threats to his life and a decision taken by his political party he moved to Australia in 2006. His two children and wife all born in Sri Lanka moved to Australia with him. He had to work under several names for the protection of his life. He returned to Sri Lanka in 2011 and following a split of his political party, a lot of information on Premakumar appeared in the media.
He was abducted from Kiribathgoda on April 06, 2012 but was later released following involvement of family members, political parties, civil organizations and the Australian High Commission in Sri Lanka. Thereafter he was deported to Australia.
“In 2014, Premakumar sought permission to return to Sri Lanka and he was granted visa to come back on January 01, 2015. He was given a tourist visa for one month and his expectation was to regain his Sri Lankan citizenship. Before his visa expired immigration and emigration officials summoned him and questioned him and tried to deport him to Australia and, therefore, he filed a fundamental rights case seeking his citizenry rights. His petition was not granted leave to proceed and then he submitted an application seeking to annul his Australian citizenship and to regain his Lankan citizenship to the then subject minister John Amaratunga. The Ministry did not accept the application and instructed him to return to Australia and to re-apply from there. Premakumar has made a fresh application to the incumbent subject minister S. B. Navinna, too.
“I am suffering from high blood pressure since the abduction of my eldest son and retired from the post of school principal in 1990 owing to ill-health. I cannot bear losing my only surviving son. We have hopes of the promise you made at the election platform that you would help those who left the country owing to political suppression return home and become citizens of this country again. I humbly plead for your intervention to help my son to enable him to live as a Sri Lankan citizen.”
Courtesy:The Island