Extra-judicial killings, abductions, burglaries haunt Sri Lanka’s north

JDS News
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The resurgence of widespread extra-judicial killings, abductions and burglaries in the northern Jaffna and Kilinochchi districts during the past two months despite a heavy military presence, have created a panic wave among the people in the area.

Reports from Jaffna, the cultural nerve-centre of the Sri Lankan Tamils, reveal that at least five people, including a Hindu priest and an education officer, have been killed, while over a dozen has been abducted by masked-men arriving in vehicles without number plates within the past few weeks.

The latest victim of the current series of killings was a 27-year old youth Kandasamy Iruthayan, who was recently released from the government’s internally displaced (IDP) camp and was residing in Thirunelveli, near Jaffna town. A group of five masked men entered his house around 10 pm on Wednesday (Jan 5, 2011) and stabbed him several times to death before fleeing the area.

Killings

This followed by the dreadful killings of 56-year old Nithyananda Sharma, chief priest of Chankanai Murugan temple, 52-year-old Markandu Sivalingam, deputy director of Education, Valikamam Zone, 29-year old Mahendran Thiruvarudchelvan, a vehicle trader in Thenmaradchchi (his decapitated body was found nine days after his abduction) and 31-year old Ketheeswaran Thevarajah, a postal worker and environmentalist in Vadamaradchchi.

According to latest reports, the deputy director of Education for Valikaamam Zone was shot dead in a close-range by a masked man with a pistol at his home in Urumpirai around 10.30 pm on December 26, in the very presence of his 13-year old daughter.

In an another related incident, police recovered the dead body of 19-year old Ariyanayagam Thulasi, who was missing for two weeks from her home in Puloly, Point-Pedro. The post-mortem report has revealed that she had been sexually abused before her death.

These killings are in addition to the abduction and burglaries. The recent abductions in the Jaffna peninsula include a 30-year old Shanmuganathan Vignesvaran, a teacher from Urumpirai, 35-year old Mahalingam Amirtharajah, a worker from Yogapuram in Urumpirai, a 48-year old widow from Alvai and Sobinathan Gopinath, a 27-year-old driver of a auto trishaw, disappearing from Urumpirai to name a few.

Rising abductions

Worst among them were the abduction of 30 school boys by an armed group from the Kilinochchi district, which was formerly the politico-military headquarters of the LTTE. Of the 30 boys abducted, 28 boys were later dropped at the Omanthai military checkpoint. The fate of the other two is not known. The story has now been twisted as a trip to Vavuniya at their own will.

Danger of such human rights violations not being exposed is high in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts than in the Jaffna peninsula as journalists and aid workers are barred from entering the former rebel heartland. Even the opposition parliamentarians have no access to these areas. The former rebel-held districts virtually remain as military garrisons with the military now building permanent military structures and infrastructure facilities.

The modus-operandi of some of the killings has similarities in nature. The perpetrators have carried out the killing while pretending to be burglars.

Such violence were the daily events when the government troops were locked in fierce war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), but the re-emergence of the dark era even after the military defeat of the LTTE has raised a million dollar question on the motive of such organised crime.

"We are terrified"

Let whatever be the motives, the latest trend of violence has deeply instilled fear and shock among the people.

“We are terrified by the incidents. We get back home early and literally remain indoors, leaving our safety in the hands of the almighty,” a Jaffna resident told JDS.

“These criminal activities have either been carried out by government troops or the groups that have got the unreserved backing of the government and its military. The situation is likely to go on unabatedly with the local government elections scheduled to be held in March,” another resident said on condition of anonymity.

No arrests

The police have not taken any effort to arrest the situation and none has been arrested in this regard to date. Instead, a senior police official for the north has blamed the media and the local politicians for playing up the “not so serious incidents” to gain political mileage.

Jaffna peninsula is heavily guarded by over 40,000 armed military and police personal even after the defeat of the LTTE. Although there is a civil government agent for the north (chief administrating officer) to look after the administration of the former war-zone, it is the military that is running the daily administration there with a recently retired military General serving as the Governor of North.

The Tamil parliamentarians representing the people in the north on Thursday brought the issue to the notice of parliament. Submitting a list of 15 such incidents that occurred in the northern peninsula, the Tamil lawmakers called for explanations from the government as to how such incidents could take place at ease despite a heavy military presence.

Unable to provide satisfactory explanations, the government’s parliamentary group leader, Minister Nimal Sripala de Silva wanted an extra day to respond. This clearly sheds some light as to who could be the perpetrators.

Colombo media keeps mum

Commenting on the incidents, government spokesman and media minister Keheliya Rambukwella has told a news conference in Colombo on Thursday that “the elements that are seeking to tarnish the image of the Colombo government internationally were behind such extra-judicial killings and abductions”.

Refusing to name such evil elements, Minister Rambukwella has said that President Mahinda Rajapaksa has ordered a quick and impartial inquiry into the incidents.

Meanwhile, media sources in Colombo have pointed out that none of the English and Sinhala language national newspapers have reported any of these incidents or the debate in parliament. They, however, were spontaneous enough to publish the denials of the military in this regard.

With the military now being ordered by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is also the defence minister and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, to purchase vegetables from the farmers in the north and to sell them at a concessionary rate in Colombo, the perpetrators are likely go scot-free.

© Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka

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Sri Lanka dissolves local government councils ahead of polls

Press Trust of India | The Hindu
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Sri Lankan authorities have dissolved local government councils in order to conduct the first—ever nationwide local elections after the end of the three decade—long LTTE war in 2009.

Divisional secretaries have been appointed as ‘Authorised Officers’ to run the administrations of the dissolved councils until the elections are held.

The date for the polls will be announced by the Election Commissioner after the closure of nominations.

The local government ministry extended the terms of all local government bodies last year in view of the two national elections —— the Presidential election held in January last year and the Parliamentary election later in April.

However, some councils are not dissolved in view of the World Cup cricket matches next month. These councils will continue to be in office till end of March.

© The Hindu

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First land, now food: Sri Lanka’s powers-abetted genocide progresses unabated

Tamil Net
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In its innovative model of inspiring the entire world on genocide, the Sri Lankan state has decided to deploy its occupying military to cultivate 40, 000 acres of abandoned land in the country of Eezham Tamils, after uprooting them in the war and not allowing them to resettle. The program is being implemented under the directions of SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, according to SL military media. The SL colonial governor in the north, Maj. Gen. G A Chandrasiri said this week that the government would cultivate black gram on 19,786 acres, groundnuts on 7,231 acres, red onions on 4,709 acres, green chillies on 4,329 acres and cowpea on 4,729 acres. The SL Army will also buy produce of farmers cultivating near its sprawling estates, and it will sell vegetables in Colombo at ‘concessionary’ rate to control market prices.

Hundreds of villages depopulated in the country of Eezham Tamils during military offensives and vast tracts of farmland remain enclosed within the military’s High Security Zones (HSZs). The military is refusing to vacate these territories.

Meeting a section of Tamil politicians recently, Mahinda Rajapaksa categorically said that he would not stop the military coming with families and colonising the ‘conquered’ land. He said that he had been in fact thinking of giving more incentives to the occupying military to have more progeny. He was harping on military rather than civil institutions in handling the situation.

While military’s refusal to vacate occupied Tamil land goes against even the Norway-brokered ‘peace’ of 2002, the US ambassador last month ‘donated’ food to the people lost their land and praised Sri Lanka’s achievement in ‘resettlement’.

While China actively aids building permanent cantonments to occupying military, the Indian housing scheme and Swaminathan scheme of agriculture turn into mere eyewash.

Meanwhile, the full details of the recent defence pact between New Delhi and Colombo are kept as secrets.

The strong rapport between Colombo and New Delhi at every stage of the military offensive is something that has been revealed sometimes back by no other than SL Defence Secretary Gotabhaya and his revelations are to the extent of even indicting some personalities in the New Delhi establishment to the war crimes.

After grooming a criminal military in the island, all the concerned parties seem to be having no option other than pleasing the military further. The Sri Lankan experiment will soon be exported to Burma and elsewhere, and some vested interest parties are already organising it, is what observers feel.

The Sri Lankan state is spoiled at every stage by corrupt powers that are pledging for the ‘unity and integrity’ of this state, knowing very well how this state would interpret it.

If at any stage had the powers told Sri Lanka that ‘past is past’ in experimenting with one nation state in the last more than six decades, and now think of reconciliation through two nation states, the behaviour of Colombo would have been different.

Those who belatedly recognise the Palestinian State now, not because of its own merit but because of their bloc politics, also fail to see that another Palestine and another international terrorist state are in the making in the island. Some of those who uphold the Palestine state sat along with India, China and Russia in the UN Human Rights Council in bailing out Sri Lanka and thus encouraging it in its genocidal programme.

Most of the international organisations and international media are yet to highlight what is happening in the island and to approach the crisis in pragmatic ways appropriate to national questions.

Some elements among them, rather than concentrating on nipping in the bud a deviating state that is endangering international system, choose to train their guns on Eezham Tamils who try in whatever ways presently possible for them to mobilise against the extermination of their nation.

What the International Crisis Group and certain international media watchdogs tell Eezham Tamils about showing contemplation of the past in mobilising for future would be meaningful and would help the affected to steer through better ways, only when such organisations openly come forward to commit to the righteousness in the national cause of Eezham Tamils.

© Tamil Net

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• Sri Lanka deploys army against pricey vegetables (AFP)
• Sri Lankan Army battles pricey veggies (NDTV)
• Sri Lanka denies existence of ‘High Security Zone’ (Tamil Net)

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Chinese infrastructre company signs Hambantota Port Development deal

Dredging Today
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China Communications Construction Co. Ltd., a transportation infrastructure company, has announced that it has entered into an agreement with the Sri Lanka Port Authority to complete the second-phase of a development project at the Port of Hambantota.

The contract, estimated to be worth over $810 million, covers the design, procurement and construction relating to the second-phase of the port’s current infrastructural construction project.

The second-phase is expected to be completed in 36 months.

According to local media reports, the contract states that China Harbour Engineering Company will build four 100,000-deadweight tonne (dwt) container berths, a single 100,000-dwt oil wharf and two 30,000-dwt feeder berths.

These will form a 490,000-square metre harbour basin that the second-phase and the third-phase projects share, a man-made offshore island as well as a 400,000-square metre (m2) road and storage yard.

Following completion of the project, the port will overshadow Colombo Port in overall capacity.

© Dredging Today

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Sri Lanka to invite investments for Trinco port

Lanka Business Online
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The Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) plans to invite investors to make proposals for investments in the eastern port of Trincomalee where large tracts of land are available by March, its chairman Priyath Wickrama said.

"We're developing Trincomalee and plan to issue a request for proposals to develop land," Wickrama said, delivering the annual P B Karandwala Memorial Lecture. "We plan to issue the RFP by March."

The lecture was organized by the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport Sri Lanka to honour a key figure in ports and shipping in the island.

Wickrama said 9,000 acres of land are available in Trincomalee and that previous RFPs had not drawn the desired response because of the ethnic war.

The 30-year war ended in May 2009 resulting in an economic boom which growth projected at 8.5 percent this year after eight percent growth in 2011.

"Now the situation has changed and there is a lot of potential for investments," Wickrama said.

Trincomalee will be developed more as a leisure port and no more industries will be allowed.

The port has a cement plant and flour mill.

"In the future we will not allow polluting industries as Trincomalee is a very sensitive area. It is one location where you can see elephants and whales - where the two giants on land and in the sea can be seen in one location."

© LBO

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