TNA MP calls for international investigations on prisoners of war

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 September 2013, 23:51 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran has called for an international investigation on the state of Prisoners of War (POW) according to international law on the conduct of war. Addressing a press conference in Jaffna on Friday, Mr Premachandran said the latest witness declaration by the SL military at Vavuniyaa High Courts that there are no former LTTE surrendees in their custody any more, while there are still hundreds of family members looking for their kith and kin, who had been handed over personally by them to the SL military, clearly indicated that the international community should now take the initiative to bring about international investigations on both war crimes and on the state of the Prisoners of War (POW).

“We are still having hundreds of witnesses, who had handed over their family members to the Sri Lankan Army in the hope that they would be released sooner or later. But, now the Sri Lankan military has given a witness statement to the Vavuniyaa High Court claiming that no LTTE members had surrendered to the Army and that no one is under their custody anymore as such. This clearly leads to the demand for an international investigation on both the war crimes and on the Prisoners of War,” Mr Premachandran said.

Apart from the witness statement by the Sri Lankan military at the Vavuniyaa High Court, Sarath Fonseka, the former Sri Lanka Army commander, who is now in political opposition to Mahinda Rajapaksa, has also stated in Jaffna last week that there was no LTTE commanders or key members handed over to the SL military. He went on declaring that all who were in custody under his command were accounted for and handed over to the new administration.

Sarath Fonseka had also gone on record denying that former Trincomalee Political Head of the LTTE, Mr Elilan, had been handed over to the SL military at Vadduvaakal in Mullaiththeevu.

Elilan’s wife Ananthi Sasitharan, who also represents the kith and kin of missing persons, is contesting the provincial council elections in the North seeking a political voice for them.

“Be it a key member of the LTTE or not, the Sri Lankan military has no right to kill the prisoners of war,” Suresh Premachandran MP further said at the press conference held in Jaffna.

SL presidential sibling and economic development minister Basil Rajapaksa told the people of Jaffna not to bring in the issues of missing persons and the issue of land appropriation in former High Security Zone during the election campaign.

Earlier, the Sri Lankan government claimed that more than 12,000 LTTE members had surrendered. Apart from a known number of people still held in prisons, all the remaining have been released after a so-called rehabilitation programme at the hands of the genocidal military. But, the fate of hundreds of key members who were handed over or filtered away from the people by the SL military after the end of war, is still not known.

SLA ex-officer testifies on orders to plant bomb

SLA ex-officer testifies on orders to plant bomb at TNA MP's house in 2008

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 January 2013, 20:27 GMT]
A former commissioned officer of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), testifying to the Canadian Immigration officials after fleeing to Toronto from Sri Lanka, said that a Colonel of the SLA had ordered him to plant bomb materials in the home of Mr M K Sivajilingam, a Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian in 2008, reports a Canadian newspaper, the National Post, on Sunday. The revelation gains significance in the context of alleged ‘recovery’ of explosives at the office of a current TNA parliamentarian Mr S Sritharan last week.

The former commissioned officer of the SLA, 38-year-old Captain Ravindra Priyashantha Watudura Bandanage, coming from Galle in the southern province of Sri Lanka, also testified that he was aware of torture and other crimes carried out by SL government forces against Tamils, and that he knew that the SLA was torturing, beating and raping civilians, the Candian media further reported.

Bandanage recounted how, in 2008, a colonel had told him, “[...] there is an order in regards to this MP, there’s an order from the Defence Ministry”.

“[…] I was asked to go to this MP’s residence and place some explosive material and detonator, and maybe they had planned to blame him for something and make him leave that area and to do something in that area that way or maybe they wanted to get rid of him,” the National Post said quoting Bandanage.

The Sri Lankan forces routinely framed government opponents during the war to discredit them and justify their arrests, said Gary Anandasangaree, a Toronto lawyer who has been making presentations about human rights violations in Sri Lanka to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. But he said it was “rare” to hear such an account from a former soldier, the National Post cited.

On January 12th this year the Sri Lankan “Terrorist” Investigation Department (TID) personnel, who receive instructions from SL Defence Secretary and presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa “recovered” C4 explosives from the office of the Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Sritharan in a move to trap the Tamil parliamentarian, sources close to the TNA MP told TamilNet.

The ex-SLA officer, who had spent 16 years in the SL Army was seeking asylum in Canada fearing for his life as he had complained to SL police about a prominent politician and his connection to drugs and prostitution.

The case of the ex-SLA officer was dismissed by the Federal Court of Canada last week on grounds of his ‘ineligibility’ for refugee protection as he was complicit in crimes against humanity.

While citing human rights and media sources that gave importance to the testimony of the ex-SLA officer, the National Post was saying that there has been mounting evidence for the atrocities committed by both sides in the Sri Lankan conflict.

“We remain tremendously concerned about the lack of accountability for the actions taken by both parties at the end of the war,” the National Post cited Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird telling on Friday.

A senior politician of a national political party in India commented some times back that comparing the ‘atrocities’ committed by ‘both sides’ is like comparing an earthen pot with an elephant.

The establishments and the media in the West do not actually need to depend on petty evidences as such that had come from the ex-SLA officer. They have all the sources for knowing how the war against all norms of humanity had been conducted at the globally topmost level. But, insignificant trumps are exposed, exploited and punished to suite orchestrated agendas while the fat ones are shielded and white-washed and while the core issue is never recognised, was the comment of a Tamil political observer in Jaffna.

Chronology:

13.01.13  SLA ex-officer testifies on orders to plant bomb a..

12.01.13  Colombo’s military establishment steps up psyop wa..

12.01.13  SL “Terrorist” investigators allegedly plant bomb ..

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Sri Lankan Army deserter gives ‘rare’ insider account of government forces torturing civilians

SL allegedly plant bomb at TNA MP's office

SL “Terrorist” investigators allegedly plant bomb at TNA MP's office in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2013, 12:32 GMT]
The Sri Lankan “Terrorist” Investigation Department (TID) personnel, who receive instructions from SL Defence Secretary and presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa “recovered” C4 explosives from the office of the Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Sritharan in a move to trap the Tamil parliamentarian, on Saturday, sources close to the TNA MP told TamilNet. The SL-TID operatives who came to the office with a TNA supporter who had campaigned for Sritharan during the election, planted the explosives inside the office and “discovered” them, the sources close to the Tamil parliamentarian alleged. The latest move by the TID, deployed in systematic campaign against the democratic voices of Eezham Tamils, only indicates the level of paranoia prevailing in the Colombo Establishment at the moment, the sources further said.

On Friday, the SL-TID investigators arrested Mr Vasanthan, a TNA supporter who had campaigned for the election of Sritharan.

The SL-TID operatives stormed the office of the MP Saturday evening alleging that they had arrested Mr Vasanthan and that they wanted to search the office to locate the explosives.

At the time of writing of this news, the SL-TID operatives are “interrogating” 38-year-old Velamaalikithan, who was at the office of the TNA MP. The interrogation is taking place at the spot itself.

As a tactic to suppress the democratic protests by the students of the University of Jaffna in November, the SL-TID had come up with an alleged accusation of “bomb attack” on Sri-TELO office in order to bring the students under “Terrorist” investigations.

Related Articles:
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Colombo disregards school development in North-East: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 November 2012, 15:42 GMT]
The Colombo government has been systematically neglecting the development of Tamil schools in the North and East provinces and the trend has been evident in the proposed 2012 budget proposals now being debated in the Sri Lankan parliament, says Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian P. Selvaraja.

The SL government is solely concentrating on its militarization of school administration by conferring principals with ‘Colonel’ titles, the TNA MP Mr.Selvarajah further blamed while participating in the budget debate in the SL parliament.

After the end of 2009 war, the SL government has been providing army training to students under the guise of ‘leadership training’ and it has been extended to civil servants irrespective of their age, he said.

“School principals in the south are conferred with title Colonel.”

Only three Sinhala medium schools in the North and East are included in Mahindothaya 1000 schools Development Programme of the government.

Schools destroyed due to Tsunami disaster in the Eastern province are still not rehabilitated.

The Colombo government gives more importance to Sinhalese schools and not to Tamil schools in its development programme, the Tamil parliamentarian blamed.

SL military removes Kuddimani remembrance posters, harasses former MP in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 July 2012, 09:38 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) together with the SL Police on Thursday arrested former Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian and the political coordinator of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation, a registered political party in the TNA alliance, for having put up posters remembering 54 Tamil political prisoners, including pioneer TELO leaders Kuddimani and Thangathurai, who were massacred inside the Welikade prison in Colombo in the SL state-sponsored pogrom against Eezham Tamils in July 1983. Mr. Sivajilingam was later released by the SL police at Nelliyadi, with the warning that he should not ‘antagonize’ the military officers of the SL military.

Despite the explanation given by the former parliamentarian, the SLA has been harassing the former Tamil parliamentarian and the political activists of TELO for the past three days.

The posters they had put up at various places of Jaffna district were removed by the military.

Mr Sivajilingam, as in his capacity of the political coordinator of the TELO, had explained to the SL military that it was unjust on the part of the SL military to block a political party from remembering its slain leaders. It is a violation on the freedom of expression, he argued when the SL military confronted him at Nelliyadi Thursday evening.

Eyewitnesses told TamilNet that the Sinhala soldiers assaulted the TELO activists who accompanied Mr Sivajilingam while instructing the SL police to arrest them all.

After detaining for a few hours, the SL police released Mr Sivajilingam and fellow activists, telling them that the military officers were angry and that they should go home avoiding activities that could ‘antagonize’ the SLA controlling the area.

The founder of the TELO, Thangathurai, and its senior leaders Kuddimani and Jegan were among the 54 Tamil political prisoners who were massacred in the Welikada prison during the violent pogrom against Tamils in July 1983. Thirty-five Tamil political prisoners were killed on 25 July and 19 on 27 July.

Chronology:

27.07.12  SL military removes Kuddimani remembrance posters,..

24.07.12  Tamil politicians urge global action in releasing ..

TNA MP warns legal action against genocidal land grab in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 June 2012, 19:40 GMT]
From Point-Pedro in the North to Pa'nama in the East, the Sri Lankan government is suppressing Eezham Tamils from protesting against the State-sponsored land grab, which seeks to Sinhalicise the Tamil homeland, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian from Batticaloa P. Selvarajah said adding that a large area in Paduvaankarai region of Batticaloa district has been appropriated by the Colombo government for Sinhala colonisation. 25,000 acres of lands have been appropriated by Colombo in the Batticaloa district to be given to Sinhala ‘home guards’ a Sinhala-colonisation-paramilitary, he said warning legal action against providing lands to Sinhala ‘home guards’.

Sinhala settlers are being brought from the South.

The then Colombo governments launched several state aided colonization schemes from 1949 such as Gal-Oya to change the demography of the east and later they annexed the DS divisions of Pathiyathalawa, Maha Oya and Dehiyatakandy with the Ampaa'rai district.

Now three Sinhala parliamentarians are elected from Ampaa'rai district instead of one as in past, he said.

Colombo is now adopting the same tactic to reduce the parliamentary representation of Tamils in Batticaloa and Jaffna districts, Mr Selvarajah said.

Tamil ‘ministers’ who are in Rajapaksa's cabinet have no backbone at least to voice against the land grab of the Colombo, he said.

But the Tamil National Alliance would be taking legal action through the Divisional Secretary against home guards who were being given lands in Tamil villages, he said.

Sinhalicization of Batticaloa takes place under guise of archaeology: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2012, 16:48 GMT]
Saiva temples located along the border of the Batticaloa district are being desecrated and demolished under the guise of archaeological excavation, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian P. Ariyanethran said Wednesday at Thaan-thoan'ri-eesvarar temple situated in Kokkaddich-choalai of Batticaloa district. The parliamentarian blamed Buddhist monks for constructing Buddhist viharas on such sites with the backing of Colombo government and the occupying Sri Lanka Army.

Mr Arniynethran was attending a meeting on the development of Kanthaveal-malai located in Paddippazhai Piratheasa Chapai. The meeting was held under auspices of Batticaloa-Ampaa'rai district Saiva Temples' Federation.

The temple federation should work not only for safeguarding the temples but it should also assist the people by providing livelihood assistance to them, the MP added.

Ariyanethran wanted the Saiva Temples Federation to take concrete steps to stop the Sinhalicization of Tamil villages such as Kanthaveal-malai by the Colombo government.

Archaeological excavations now being undertaken in Tamil villages in the East should be stopped, he said.

In the meantime, Sr Lankan Police elite commandos, who were on treasure hunt at an archaeological site have been confronted by the local people of Mahawilachchiya in Anuradhapura district in the North Central Province.

Media reports in Colombo also revealed that illegal treasure hunting in archaeological sites have increased with the connivance or participation of the SL military occupying the country of Eezham Tamils at the bordering forest areas.

The ‘Army and Archaeology’ has entered into a phase of ‘Army and antiquarian trade’, civil sources in the island commented.