urgent Press statement
ref.pr/200406

The International Federation of Tamils -IFT- representing the Tamil Diaspora, wishes to draw the immediate attention of the International Community -IC- to the escalation of State Terror perpetrated against the Tamils in Sri Lanka and plead for instant response and action to prevent state violence against Tamils, state violation of the human rights of the Tamils and the state-terrorist policy of annihilation of the Tamil nation in the island.

The pace of state terrorism lulled during the first three years after Cease Fire Agreement - CFA- has gathered momentum again with the assumption of Mahindha Rajapakse as President of Sri Lanka in November, 2005.

The incident at Puththur, Jaffna, in which five Tamil civilians, taken to an army base, tortured and murdered, riddled with bullets on the night of Tuesday, 18 April cannot be ignored as isolated or frivolous. Four of them were ordinary civilians returning home in an auto-rickshaw after helping a sick man to his house when the Sri Lanka army stopped them and took them to 51-1 army Brigade base at Puththur for interrogation.

The fifth man was an auto-rickshaw driver who went in search of his friends. He was also apprehended and taken to the same army base. The following morning all five were found dead, their mutilated bodies riddled with bullets and bearing torture marks, thrown across a meadow close to the army base. This is not an isolated incident in the recent past after Mahindha Rajapakse became President. Between November and January more than 45 cases of Tamil civilian involuntary disappearances were reported by the SLHRC.

There were as many cases for which solid proofs could not be submitted. It is not surprising because Sarath Fonseka, the new Commander of the Army, instrumental in the involuntary disappearance of 600 - 700 Tamil civilians in1996 when he was the Commanding Officer of Jaffna, is now overall in charge. The Army Commander took pride in quoting a pinch of his brand of "ruthless handling" exercised on Tamil people during November December, 2005, when he referred to them in his address to his military audience in Vavuniya in early March, 2006.

The murder of a senior Tamil Parliamentarian, Joseph Pararajasingham during the midnight Christmas service in the regional cathedral was a clear case of state terrorism. Full information on the military assailant and paramilitary accomplices, although submitted, no action was taken to apprehend them. The murder of five teenage Tamil students in Trincomalee where the unarmed civilian victims were pinned to the ground and shot behind their ears at close range on January the second, was also a clear example of state terrorism, shoved under the carpet with no protest from the IC. But the moment the Tamils hit back at state terrorists, the IC hastened to condemn the leaders in the Tamil national struggle. 2 It was during this period of Sri Lankan State terrorism that the IC - the EU and the Co- Chairs - slapped a strong statement condenming he leadership of the Tamils.

Perhaps the IC was finding reason in repeating its earlier action, when the US and UK pinned the "Terrorist Badge" on the leaders in the Tamil national struggle, when they should rightly have branded Sri Lankan State "terrorist" for imposing very strictly a food and medicine embargo on the Tamil areas at the time, any civilised government would be ashamed to commit. There were two main points on which both sides agreed at Geneva 1 Peace talks to implement, namely, disarming of armed groups and refraining from making attacks on each other. Both were flouted the very next day, when a paramilitary group assisted by the state army crossed over the agreed line, attacked an LTTE checkpoint and killed a cadre.

Within a week two more LTTE cadres were killed. In Jaffna and Batticaloa, civilians were arrested arbitrarily and tortured. Involuntary disappearance was rearing its head again. The Tamil community raised the alarm to no avail. The IC turned a blind eye till retaliation commenced from the Tamil end. The murder of Vigneswaran, the leader of the Tamil People's Forum, perhaps was an expression of State abhorrence at his continued loud insistence on action on the military and paramilitary culprits in the case of the five students and the journalists murdered in Trincomalee after Rajapakse's assumption as President.

Vigneswaran's singular contribution to the outstanding success of the Tamil political party at the local government election in Trincomalee was another reason for the Sinhala polity to banish him. He was murdered in broad daylight between two army checkpoints in the high security zone. He was an MP-inwaiting with papers ready to be submitted to Parliament and his murder, naturally provoked violence from his supporters. This gave the IC another chance to pounce on the leaders of the Tamil national struggle. Canada read out its Terrorist List, now. Every time the IC took its whip against the Tamils, it was a moment for euphoric outburst for the Sinhala polity and this time, a communal riot was unleashed with Sinhala mob transported in military trucks to Trincomalee, where they pounced on unarmed Tamil civilians and their business centres with machetes and torches, perhaps with misplaced inspiration from the Canadian ban order.

When the Tamils tried to defend themselves, the US and Japan, the EU and Co-Chairs, and finally Australia rushed to admonish the Tamils and congratulate the Sri Lankan government for its patience and commitment to duty. IFT wishes to draw the attention of the IC to the fact that the Tamils chose the armed struggle out of necessity to save them from annihilation, when all non-violent democratic means failed. The LTTE, as representatives of the Tamil people, took up arms against State Terrorism. It is unfair to term freedom fighters against State terrorism, Terrorists.

Tamils, both at home and abroad, expect the

LTTE to fight Sri Lanka state terrorism and provide Tamils protection in their own land. They have placed their trust in them in the hope the LTTE will lead the Tamil struggle, attain their aspirations to self-determination and recognition of their traditional homeland.

For Further Contacts: 18 Rue des Paquis,1201 Geneva, Switzerland tel/Fax 00 41 22 7320 831 This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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