<p>An illegal detention centre similar to the one discovered by UN experts in eastern Sri Lanka has been found in the country's northern Jaffna district, a former Tamil lawmaker has said, alleging that civil war detainees including Tamils were tortured in the camps.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran this week released pictures of the alleged torture camp in Vara'ni area of the district in which blood-stained walls of a house were shown.<br /><br />Premachandran claimed the house was used as a cell by the Sri Lankan military to torture civil war detainees.<br /><br />He said the chamber has been in existence since the army wrested Jaffna from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 1995.<br /><br />The Sri Lankan army has denied the existence of any such camps in the north.<br />"We had no reasons to maintain torture chambers and never heard of their existence", army spokesman Brigadier Jayanath Jayaweera said.<br /><br />Premachandran's revelations came a fortnight after a three-member team of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances disclosed the existence of a similar camp in the eastern district of Trincomalee.<br /><br />The secret Trincomalee 12-cell prison had markings on the walls that indicated detainees were kept there till 2010 -- one year after the nearly three-decade-long war against the LTTE ended, the UN group has said.<br /><br />Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera yesterday told the Parliament that the UN Working Group's findings will be seriously investigated by the government.<br /><br />The UN has estimated that nearly 40,000 people were killed during the final phase of the bloody civil war in Sri Lanka.</p>
<p>An illegal detention centre similar to the one discovered by UN experts in eastern Sri Lanka has been found in the country's northern Jaffna district, a former Tamil lawmaker has said, alleging that civil war detainees including Tamils were tortured in the camps.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran this week released pictures of the alleged torture camp in Vara'ni area of the district in which blood-stained walls of a house were shown.<br /><br />Premachandran claimed the house was used as a cell by the Sri Lankan military to torture civil war detainees.<br /><br />He said the chamber has been in existence since the army wrested Jaffna from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 1995.<br /><br />The Sri Lankan army has denied the existence of any such camps in the north.<br />"We had no reasons to maintain torture chambers and never heard of their existence", army spokesman Brigadier Jayanath Jayaweera said.<br /><br />Premachandran's revelations came a fortnight after a three-member team of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances disclosed the existence of a similar camp in the eastern district of Trincomalee.<br /><br />The secret Trincomalee 12-cell prison had markings on the walls that indicated detainees were kept there till 2010 -- one year after the nearly three-decade-long war against the LTTE ended, the UN group has said.<br /><br />Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera yesterday told the Parliament that the UN Working Group's findings will be seriously investigated by the government.<br /><br />The UN has estimated that nearly 40,000 people were killed during the final phase of the bloody civil war in Sri Lanka.</p>