The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission said yesterday it had received reports of TMVP cadres moving past check points in the east with abducted victims and that the authorities had failed to arrest the situation. This was reported in the SLMM assessment report prepared prior to the announcement that Karuna Amman was replaced by Pillayan as TMVP leader.

SLMM said a high-ranking police officer had told the monitors that all police stations were instructed to record complaints relating to such allegations and in the event such complaints were not entertained, the SSP should be approached to lodge the complaint.

“The SLMM informed the police of reports that the TMVP/Karuna group was moving past check points with arms and/or abductees and that the police in general failed to act on cases where the TMVP/Karuna group was suspected of abductions or other crimes,” the SLMM said.

Meanwhile the ICRC in its own bulletin for the period September 1 to 12 said families continued to report violations of international humanitarian law, including abductions, child recruitment, summary executions and attacks where civilians were injured.

“Abductions continued to be a major issue in the Eastern Region and the SLMM registered 13 abductions last week, including nine reported to the police and four to the SLMM. Two of the reports included children, reportedly abducted by the TMVP/Karuna group. Additionally, eight abductions occurring previous to the period of reporting were registered,” the SLMM said.

The SLMM said some political parties were unable to work in public campaign on their political platform because of security concerns adding that it was still difficult to hold elections for the Eastern Provincial Council because of the number of displaced in the area and the continuing presence of armed groups.

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