Sri Lanka: Government should release official figure of military personal killed

Saturday, 24 November 2007

The Sri Lankan government should release an official figure of the number of military personal killed fighting the Tamils over the past 25 years, Dr Jayadevan has demanded. Writing in a leading British newspaper, Dr Jayadevan lambasted international media for continuing to quote 70, 000 as the number of people killed in the war. He says that 70, 000 was roughly the number of people killed as at year 2001, and that around 5, 000 more have died since the current President Mahinda Rajapaksa came to power in 2005.

"Death toll of LTTE cadres is readily available," Dr Jayadevan worte, adding "government of Sri Lanka has not provided any official number of men in the forces died in the conflict".

He went on to write: "Any statistics must reflect the anti-Tamil violence of 1977 and 1983 when state aided Sinhala mobs went on the spree and killed thousands of Tamil population.

"The 1977 violence was investigated by a special commission headed by Judge Sasoni. There was no official investigation for the worst violence of July 1983. To this day no one knows the exact number of deaths in these anti-Tamil violence.

"Random shooting and massacres was common features of the Sri Lankan forces in the 1980's and 1990's. There are recorded incidences of thousands of innocent Tamils being killed."

Dr Jayadevan lost his mother and an elder brother to Sri Lankan military violence in the 1980s. He has since been active in Tamil politics. He is also a leading businessman with a net worth of more than US$5million.

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Dr.Sharil Cik Mat said:

How can you get the figure of the dead soldiers when the Govt.is bluffibng to the world.It is demoralising to the army but on the other hand you are cheating your own citizens who voted you to power.There is a way out if you think for a while.Open a fund and call on the public to regiter the dear one's who has lost their life & those incapaciated because of the war saying that the dependants may be able to claim something from the fund.This voluntary disclosure will give you the exact number of soldiers who lost their lifes due this war.

2007-11-27 05:56:26

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