TAMIL CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS - TCHR/CTDH
CENTRE TAMOUL POUR LES DROITS DE L'HOMME
(Established in 1990)
(UN accredited NGO to the World Summit on Information Society)

www.tchr.net

Ref : CZ041/PR/2006

Recently there have been a shocking and disturbing number of cold-blooded murders of members of civil society including human rights defenders in the government declared “High Security Zones” –HSZs in Sri Lanka, despite four years of cease-fire.

One may wonder, “What type of security do these High Security Zones offer?” Certainly not the security of those dedicated to promoting and protecting the rights of the people – they are frequently killed in the so-called HSZs.

The latest victim murdered in the HSZ is Mr. Vanniyasingam Vigneswaran, a member of civil society, who was the first to challenge the illegally erected Buddha statue in Trincomalee in May last year. On 7th April 2006, Mr. Vigneswaran who represented the people on local issues in Trincomalee was brutally shot dead while entering a Bank within the HSZ in Trincomalee.

He had faced continuous threats and murder attempts by government security forces and paramilitary forces over some time. A grenade had been lobbed into his home on 24 June 2005. The day before his murder, he had met with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission -SLMM to whom he had complained regarding the threats and attempts on his life.

The recent local elections in the Trincomalee area had seen a victory for the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) which has twenty two members in the Sri Lankan parliament. Mr. Vigneswaran was going to take up the MP position of the TNA MP Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham who was assassinated last year, on Christmas day inside Batticaloa cathedral which is also situated in a HSZ. The eye witnesses of the killing of Mr. Pararajasingham have said that members of paramilitary forces carried out the killing. The paramilitary forces in Sri Lanka are funded by the Sri Lankan government and work closely with the Sri Lankan military intelligence.

Now Mr. Vigneswaran’s killing is also believed to have been carried out by the paramilitary forces in Trincomalee which have killed many civilians in the recent past, including five students shot dead in an execution-style massacre on 2nd January in Trincomalee.

Paramilitary forces are used by the Sri Lankan government to eliminate politicians, parliamentarians, journalists and others who oppose the government’s aggressive policies on the island’s ethnic issues.

Under article 1.8 of the Cease-fire Agreement (CA) signed in February 2002 by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lanka government, these paramilitary forces should have been disarmed long ago by the Sri Lankan government. But this is another of the articles in the CA which have not been implemented by the Sri Lankan government. On the contrary, the government has encouraged and emboldened these paramilitary groups.

In the last round of peace talks in Geneva, between the LTTE and Sri Lanka, the subject of paramilitary forces came up for discussion and the Sri Lanka government agreed that it would disarm these paramilitary groups before the next round of peace talks, which is due take place on the 19th of this month. But the killings by paramilitary forces still continue.

According to TCHR sources in Batticaloa, a paramilitary group known as "Karuna group" has opened up a big office, in Kovinthan Road in Batticaloa town. This building is equipped with all military protection including modern bunkers, and is fully guarded by Sri Lanka military soldiers. For the opening of this office – all the members of the business community in Batticaloa, Bank officials and others were intimidated by this paramilitary force to participate in this opening ceremony.

The opening of this office for a paramilitary force is a serious violation of the cease-fire agreement, article 1.8 and also breaks the promise made by the Sri Lankan negotiating team in Geneva.

Many people have been killed in the HSZ areas and other areas dominated by the Sri Lankan security forces. On 5 January 2000, eminent lawyer and human rights defender Mr. Kumar Ponnambalam was assassinated in broad day light in Colombo; journalists – Mylvaganam Nirmalarajan of BBC, Aiyadurai Nadesan and Dharmaratnam Sivaram were also killed in the HSZs. Parliamentarian Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham in Batticaloa, former parliamentarian Mr. Chandra Nehru, LTTE political head of Batticaloa Mr. Kousalyan, five students in Trincomalee and three members of a family in Manipay were all killed in HSZs. The abduction of seven Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation workers, engaged in humanitarian work in the East, at the end on January 2006 also took place in the HSZs. They are still missing.

A Tamil woman, Tharshini was gang-raped and murdered in Punkuduthivu in December 2005 and many other gang rapes and murders have taken place in the HSZs.

These killings and abductions have neither been properly investigated nor have the culprits been brought to justice and punished.

TCHR, along with many other international solidarity organisations, condemns the brutal killing of Mr. Vigneswaran and others which have taken place in the HSZs. These killings could not have been executed without the knowledge and complicity of the government.

TCHR kindly advises members of civil society in Sri Lanka to avoid going into the so-called HSZs. These zones are in fact the current killing fields of the government of Sri Lanka, its security forces and paramilitary forces.

It is regrettable that this appalling fact has so far not been realised by the International Community, Human Rights organisations and others in civilised and democratic countries in the West.

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