Colombo, Sri Lanka: The atrocities committed in Pesalai by the security forces have become the focus of attention of the International Community through the report despatched by Rev Father Rayapu Josef, the Bishop of Manar, to the Vatican and through the proceedings of the magisterial inquiry into the deaths.

It is worth mentioning here the fact that the Sinhala and English media of the South failed in their duty to report these incidents of violence such as the attacks on the refugees in the Peasalai church, the burning of Fish Waddiyas and the damage caused to the fishing boats in the right perspective. Even the reports from the Government Agent, the Assistant Government Agent, the Bishop of Mannar, the SLMM and the Magistrate who visited the scene and made their observations, did not move the Sinhala and English media.

The worst was, certain media later attempted to misreport the deaths of civilians at Pesalai as caused during cross fire between the security forces and the LTTE

Now the truth has come to light and drawn the attention of the International Community as a result of the letter addressed to the Vatican Church by the Bishop of Mannar and by the observation made by the Mannar Magistrate

“According to the evidence led before court heinous atrocities had been committed on the civilians who sought refuge in the Church. The court cannot refrain from taking appropriate lawful measures against such violence. If the court fails to discharge its duty, people will lose faith in the judiciary” –A.K.Prabakaran, Acting Magistrate had made these observation.

It is only, now, quite belatedly do reports appear that President Rajapakse has appointed a team of Senior Army officers to conduct inquiries. People are doubtful whether this team will find out the culprits, whether they will release their report even if they identify the culprits, and whether the culprits will be dealt with or whether this will meet the same fate as that of the inquiry held into the killing of five innocent students in Trincomalee.

But one thing is certain. It has come to light that the Pesalai violence is one of the many atrocities committed daily against the innocent Tamils in this country.

The International community has to look beyond the ambit of the media of the South in order to ascertain the truth of the matter of violence in the North-East!

An English translation of the Editorial of Sudar Oli, a Tamil National daily, based in Colombo 23 June 2006

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed