CAT/C/58/D/600/2014
Factual background
2.1
The complainant is of Tamil ethnicity and of the Hindu faith. He was born in the
village of Kaluwanchikudy, Batticaloa District, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, and lived there
until 2007, when he and his family were displaced from their village owing to the civil war.
The family sought refuge in Kaluthavalai, a village approximately 25 kilometres from the
city of Batticaloa, and remained there for about four months. They then returned to their
home, where the complainant remained until his departure for Australia.
2.2
The complainant claims that he fled Sri Lanka because he feared for his life after
being personally threatened on two occasions by soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army. He
worked as a mason and travelled to different places for his work. On 10 September 2011,
he was working at a construction site approximately 25 kilometres away from his home.
After finishing his work, he travelled home with his colleagues. When he arrived home, he
realized that he had left his phone and wallet at work. He decided to return to the worksite
to collect his belongings on his bicycle. He picked up his phone and wallet and was walking
back to his bicycle when he heard a woman screaming. The sound was coming from an
abandoned house which was a few metres away from the worksite. The complainant rushed
over to see what was happening. He looked inside the abandoned house and saw two
soldiers and a woman in one of the rooms. The woman was lying on the floor and one of
the soldiers was sitting over her, strangling her. The other soldier was watching. The
soldiers were wearing black T-shirts and army trousers and had black grease smeared over
their faces.
2.3
The soldier who was watching the attack saw the complainant and started to
approach him, but the complainant run away. The soldier chased him and shouted at him in
Sinhala, but the complainant does not speak Sinhala and could not understand what the
soldier was saying. The complainant kept running and, at some point, the soldier stopped
chasing him. When he reached home two to three hours later, he realized that he did not
have his wallet. He did not know where he had dropped it. He told his family what had
happened.
2.4
The next day, on 11 September 2011, the complainant and his father went to the
local police station to report what the complainant has seen. He told a police officer what
had happened and provided the location of the village where the attack had occurred and a
description of the soldiers. The police officer reportedly suggested that the soldier who had
chased the complainant was only a “madman” and he did not take the complainant’s
statement.
2.5
Late in the evening on 13 September 2011, three soldiers came to the complainant’s
house. One of them began banging on the front door but the complainant’s parents did not
open it. The soldiers began yelling in Sinhala but the complainant and his family did not
understand what they were saying. The neighbours heard the shouting and started coming
around to see what was happening. When the soldiers saw the neighbours they decided to
leave and drove away in a white van. After this, the complainant decided to hide and went
to live with other relatives.
2.6
On 19 September 2011, the complainant was walking along a road close to his house
when a white van with no number plates stopped next to him. The complainant suspected
that it was the same van used by the soldiers who had come to his house on 13 September
2011. As the complainant was near his aunt’s house, he jumped over a fence and ran into
her back yard. The van drove away. After that, he decided to leave Sri Lanka.
2.7
On 28 January 2012, the complainant left his village and travelled by bus to
Colombo, then to Beruwala, a town in Kalutara District, Western Province, and, on
2 February 2012, he left Sri Lanka illegally by boat. On 17 February 2012, he arrived at
Christmas Island, Australia, without a valid visa. The complainant participated in an entry
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