the complainant was visited by a delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and, on 22 February 1996, he and his mother were released from detention upon payment of a bribe. 2.3 On 30 March 1996, the complainant was arrested during an identity check by an army patrol that brought him to Welikade prison, where he was interrogated about his connection with the LTTE. After his release on 1 January 1997, he was returned to Chankanai. Meanwhile, his younger brother had died, on 18 July 1996, during an LTTE attack against an army camp near Mullaitivu. 2.4 Following his return to Chankanai, the complainant and his second brother, T., were arrested six or seven times, between April and June 1997, by militia of the EPRLFb and TELO.c They were taken to a camp near Puttur, where they were interrogated about their links with the LTTE. During interrogation, they were allegedly beaten; in one case, they received blows with an iron chain and were burnt on their back with a hot piece of iron, in order to extract a confession. In July 1997, T. was once again arrested by militia; he has disappeared since. 2.5 Thereafter, the complainant returned to Colombo, from where he left for Switzerland via Turkey and Italy on 22 August 1997, using a false passport. 2.6 On 26 August 1997, the complainant applied for political asylum in Switzerland. Following interviews by the Federal Office for Refugees (BFF) on 26 August 1997 and 22 April 1998, and by the alien police on 14 October 1997, the BFF rejected his asylum application on 28 October 1998, at the same time ordering him to leave the country by 15 January 1999. The order was based on the following grounds: (a) the lack of credibility of his claims concerning his detention at Welikade prison and the alleged disappearance of his second brother, T., as well as inconsistencies in the description of his and his brother’s ill-treatment at the hands of the EPRLF/TELO; (b) the absence of a sufficient link, in time and substance, between his detention at the Pettah police station from 31 January to 22 February 1996 and his departure from Sri Lanka on 22 August 1997; and (c) the absence of a sufficiently substantiated risk of torture upon return to Sri Lanka, where the complainant would be able to resettle in areas not affected by the hostilities between the parties to the conflict. 2.7 On 30 November 1998, the complainant lodged an appeal with the Swiss Asylum Review Commission (ARK) and subsequently submitted two medical reports, dated 6 January and 5 September 1999, confirming that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. By submission of 10 October 1999, the BFF maintained its position, arguing that the complainant could receive adequate therapeutic treatment at the Family Rehabilitation Centre in Colombo or at one of its 12 branch offices in Sri Lanka. Moreover, it noted a contradiction between the medical report of 6 January 1999, which referred to the complainant having been detained for 14 days in Colombo prior to his arrest on 31 January 1996, and the complainant’s failure to raise this point during the interviews. 2.8 On 30 November 2000, the ARK dismissed the complainant’s appeal. It endorsed the findings of the BFF and added the following grounds: (a) that none of the complainant’s alleged arrests resulted in criminal proceedings against him, for collaboration with the LTTE; (b) that the 140