CAT/C/51/D/387/2009 appointed by the UNP minister in Central Province to be the UNP organizer in Aluthgama village. His role was to get new members to join the party. 2.2 In 1998, the same minister asked the complainant to stand for elections as a committee member of the National Employees Trade Union ((Jathika Sevaka Sngamaya (JSS)), which is affiliated with the UNP. He was first elected as a committee member of the Central Region organization of the Union and later, as organizer of the JSS Transport Board Central Region Committee, which was the top leadership position. His duties included maintaining JSS membership level intact and dealing with organizational matters. 2.3 Among other achievements, he created a fund to help workers who had lost their jobs, and he had a bus refurbished as an emergency vehicle to take workers to hospital. Many workers were attracted by these benefits and started joining the JSS to the detriment of the People’s Liberation Front Union (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)) of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). Seeing inequalities in the participatory system of trade unionists, the complainant started openly criticizing the system in 2000 and encouraged JSS members not to report for duty while SLFP and JVP members participated in their rallies. This made him increasingly unpopular with SLFP and JVP. 2.4 As a result of losing their members, and therefore votes, members of JVP and SLFP constantly clashed with the complainant and physically harassed him on several occasions. In 2000, a JVP leader in the Pradeshiya Sabha Provincial Council in Matale, one Mr. L.A, became particularly active in harassing the complainant. Mr. L.A was known for his involvement with the militant wing of JVP, which was allegedly responsible for the killings of political opponents. He was with JVP when the movement staged a violent rebellion against the Government in 1988 and 1989. Mr. L.A. was allegedly jailed for killing UNP members at the time of the rebellion; when JVP came to power in 1994, he was released from jail. By 2000, Mr. L.A. knew about the complainant’s political activities; his house was frequently visited at night by 10 to 12 men looking for him. This prompted the complainant to move from Matale to Gokarella in 2000, although he continued working in Matale and continued his activities as the UNP organizer in Aluthgama village. 2.5 In 2001, before the election of the new Prime Minister, the complainant was involved in organizing a nationwide strike to protest against the privatization of the Transport Board. After the UNP won the 2001 elections, the complainant joined the JSS Youth League and was subsequently elected to the UNP Youth League (Youn Peramuna) in Matale. 2.6 Between the 2001 and 2004 elections, he was periodically harassed at his workplace but not as frequently as he was prior to 2001. After the UNP lost the 2004 elections, SLFP and JVP merged into the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and formed a government. For about two weeks after the elections, the complainant did not report for work, knowing that he would be harassed. He finally returned to work because of the police presence at the Transport Board depot, but JVP and SLFP members would not let him sign the attendance sheet. Other UNP members, however, were allowed to sign in. The complainant went to the police and filed a complaint. As a result, the harassment intensified. In June 2004, he was transferred against his will to another depot in Teldenyia, where he was the only UNP member. Despite the transfer, the harassment by JVP and SLFP members continued in various forms, including death threats. 2.7 Two months after the transfer, the complainant was told by the SLFP union secretary that he was going to be transfered to the Trincomalee depot, located in the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) conflict zone. The complainant decided to quit his job at the Transport Board and earn his living by growing and selling vegetables. 2.8 In September 2004, he complained to the UNP about the treatment he had been subjected to by SLFP and JVP. Allegedly, after investigating his claims, the UNP Political 3