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Human rights study exposes brutal conditions in Sri Lankan prisons
The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) has published an extensive report detailing the overcrowded and torturous conditions inside the country’s prison system. It is based on investigations conducted between April and September 2018 at 20 of the island’s 23 prisons two years before COVID-19 began infecting prisoners.
The 850-page study was released in late December. A few weeks earlier on November 29, 11 inmates were shot dead and dozens of others injured at Mahara prison when guards and police brutally suppressed a protest at the facility.
Prison study by Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka: Hundreds of plantation workers strike to defend jobs and social rights
Over 500 Gartmore Estate workers at Maskeliya in central Sri Lanka remain on strike after walking out on December 28 to defend their jobs and social rights. On Wednesday, the strikers rejected an attempt by the plantation unions to push them back to work.
Gartmore workers are demanding a guarantee that their jobs and conditions, including provident fund and gratuity (pensions) payments will be continued by the new owner of the estate. The 290-hectare private estate was previously owned by the Soyza family.
Line rooms at Gartmore Estate [Credit: WSWS Media]
Bangladesh pandemic cases surpass half a million, with over 7,810 deaths
Officially, COVID-19 pandemic cases in Bangladesh stand at over 524,000 and deaths at more than 7,810, as medical experts criticise the callous disregard of Prime Minister Sheik Hasina’s government over its handling of the health emergency.
Nine months have already passed since the first COVID-19 related cases and deaths were reported: three cases on March 8 last year and on March 18, the first death.
The government’s under-estimation of the extent of the crisis was exposed after its figures were compared with those in other countries, which adopted the criminal “herd immunity” policy allowing the virus to run unchecked.