Petitioner's comments on the State party's submission 5.1 In his response, on 24 July 2001, to the State party's submission the petitioner reiterates the claims made in the initial submission, including the claim about the unfairness of the accelerated asylum procedure. In this regard, he also submits that although a legal advisor may be present at the first interview he cannot participate by asking questions himself nor assist the asylum–seeker in the preparation of this interview. In practice, the legal advisor has no time even to attend this first interview. This is very important, as it is after this first interview that the decision is made whether to deal with the case by the accelerated procedure or not and whether the asylum-seeker will be kept in detention. The petitioner further states that he had three different lawyers acting for him at different times and that neither of his first two lawyers were familiar enough with the situation in Sri Lanka to ask him the appropriate questions, including a question as to the possibility of scars on his body. It was only the petitioner's third lawyer that recognised the importance of this issue in Sri Lanka. 5.2 The petitioner contests the State party's view of the general human rights situation in Sri Lanka. He questions the sources referred to in the Ministry's report of July 2000 and states that, the statement in this report that the situation gives cause for concern is an understatement. He also refers to a report by the UNHCR which states that if Tamil asylum-seekers with scars are returned to Sri Lanka they may be more prone to adverse identification by the security forces and taken for rigorous questioning and potential illtreatment The petitioner also refers to other reports from international organisations to support his view that the presence of scars on the body of returned Tamils to Sri Lanka puts them at particular risk. He states that if returned to Colombo he runs the risk of an identity and background check as he does not have a valid reason for wanting to stay in Colombo, has no police-registration in Colombo and does not have a National Identity Card with him. 5.3 On the State party's point that if the petitioner had been a suspect he would not have been able to travel to Colombo and flee from the country having being checked in twice by the authorities on an authentic passport, he states that there is no evidence showing that the authorities have a central system to register all those suspected of involvement with the LTTE. He says also that this fact was confirmed by the July 2000 report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 5.4 On the State party's point that a second asylum application could have been lodged he states that this would have been pointless as the District Court was informed about his scars and still decided that there was no risk involved by removing him to Sri Lanka. Thus, there were no new facts or