As the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers begin discussing – through the Norwegian facilitators - the preliminaries for the next round of peace talks due to take place in Geneva this month, the tension in the Northeast continues unabated with the military and paramilitary groups continuing the harassment of the population.
Amongst the most serious developments, the Sri Lankan military has slapped a total exclusion zone on the northern waters. The ban bars large fishing boats, on threat of being sunk, from entering waters up to 12miles from the shore without explicit written permission – which Tamils struggle to get from the Sinhala dominated military.
Local sea-going bans had always been in place, in violation of the February 2002 ceasefire agreement (CFA), but the new directive is a total exclusion in the northern seas.
According to the Sri Lankan military, the ban follows the destruction of a Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) gunboat in which 8 seamen were killed when a trawler they had stopped blew up, also killing its six occupants. The military says the boat was smuggling weapons for the LTTE, but the movement has denied any involvement. The boat was Sinhala owned.
The SLN and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) collaborating with paramilitaries had violated the ceasefire agreement in the LTTE controlled Muttur east and Vakarai area said Mr. S. Elilan, Trincomalee district political head of the Liberation Tigers Saturday as he lodged three separate complaints with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).
Mr. Elilan told Tamilnet that Saturday afternoon around 1.45 p.m. the third violation of ceasefire agreement had taken place in Sampoor coastal area when SLN soldiers stationed in Norway island off west of Sampoor coast had fired heavy weapons at fishermen who were fishing in the sea compelling them to flee for their lives.
“I brought incident to the notice of the SLMM in Trincomalee. The response from the SLN was that they had fired towards the Sampoor coast accidentally when they were testing their weapons. I asked the SLMM whether the coastal villages where thousands of civilians reside had become the testing ground for the SLN to test their weapons. I told the SLMM that it’s a serious violation of the ceasefire agreement and to cause an inquiry into my complaint,” Mr. Elilan told TamilNet.
The SLA committed two more ceasefire violations at Thonithandamadu in Vakarai division – one on Saturday early morning and the other few hours later between Maruthankerni and Panichchankerni, he said.
At Thonithandamadu, SLA troops and accompanying paramilitaries had attacked the LTTE sentry post in the area, even firing mortar shells. Residents of the village had fled from the area and several civilian houses were damaged by shells which also killed four cows.
The second attack took place around nine in the morning between Maruthankerni and Panichchankerni. LTTE cadres had enegaged a group of SLA soldiers and paramilitaries waiting in ambush in no-man land to attack the LTTE sentry point. A firefight ensued between both parties before the SLA had fled from the area. One LTTE cadre was injured.
Last Tuesday, more than 150 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and around 50 paramilitary cadres belonging to three paramilitary groups rounded up five villages in Valaichenai, north of Batticaloa and warned the villagers against supporting the LTTE.
The paramilitary cadres, travelling in SLA vehicles, summoned the people to Pechiyamman temple grounds and held a meeting where key operatives of Karuna Group warned the people against supporting the Liberation Tigers.
Cadres from the ENDLF paramilitary group and a key operative of the Eelam Peoples’ Democratic Party (EPDP) attached to the Sri Lanka Army camp in Valaichenai Harbour also took part in the operation, villagers told TamilNet. The EPDP is allied to the ruling United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance government and the party’s leader is a minister.
Heavily armed SLA troopers were seen patrolling Kannan Kiramam, Vinayagapuram, Kannakipuram, Pethalai, Puthukudiyiruppu and guarding the Pechiyamman temple site while four key paramilitary operatives, Pratheepan, Jeyanthan, Ajith and Ranjith were addressing the roughly 250 people summoned to the temple grounds.
Johnson Jeyakanthan, known by his nom-de-guerre Pratheepan was one of speakers who came to the site with Markkan, a key paramilitary operative, a resident said.
The Sri Lankan Police had detained Jeyakanthan in March 2005 following an assassination attempt on Kuveni, the political head of LTTE’s Batticaloa-Amparai women wing. He was a member of the LTTE and had defected in 1992 when he was facing disciplinary action for attempting to molest a girl in Valaichenai.
Jeyakanthan, who instructed the people to obey the instructions and be supportive to Karuna’s mission, said his group demanded “total support” from the villagers.
Those of the villagers who fail to yield support to Karuna’s mission, will be integrated by “military means,” the paramilitary operative told the gathering.
There were 300 cadres involved in the search operation, Jeyakanthan claimed in his address. He described himself as a political cadre of the TMVP (Tamileelam Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal). At the end of the meeting he asked the villagers to prepare 150 lunch packs.
Kathirkamathamby Jeyaseelan, another Karuna Group operative from Kannan Kiramam in Valaichenai, also addressed the villagers.
A paramilitary operative who identified himself as “Ranjith master” said he was under arrest in India and was sent to Sri Lanka following a personal request made by Karuna.
“If you have any inquiries, come to our office located in Kovindan street in Batticaloa town,” Ranjith told the villagers, adding the Karuna Group was also making arrangements to open a camp in Valaichenai.
The paramilitary cadres then went to the SLA camp in Valaichenai Harbour, according to the villagers. An intelligence operative of the EPDP, Siva, who operates from the site, was also seen at the site.
In other violence, the severely beaten body of Thambirajah Thankarajah, a father of two who lost his wife in 2004 tsunami, was recovered from a well Tuesday morning in the Onthachchimadam housing scheme in Kaluwanchikudy, south of Batticaloa. Police said he had been beaten and stabbed with a sharp instrument before his body was dumped into the well.
Another man, a young father of two, was also found knifed to death in Kaddapadu in Kalkuda, Valaichenai. The victim, Mr. Kulathunga Regikanth, 26, had been subjected to death threats from paramilitary operatives for some months, according to his relatives. A group of twenty armed men were waiting for him 300 meters from Valaichenai Police station.
Relatives of the victim named Kathirgamathamby Jeyaseelan, the senior cadre of the paramilitary Karuna Group, as being behind the death threats made earlier to Regikanth.
Muttur Divisional Fishermen’s Co-operative Societies Union (MDFCSU) said a statement released Sunday in Trincomalee that more than two thousand fisher families have seriously affected economically following attacks by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) on the coastal villages in the Muttur east.
Many Muttur families solely depend on fishing for their living livelihood. During the war situation too these families lived on their income derived from fishing on a limited scale. But with the February 2002 ceasefire agreement income from fishing improved and fisher families economic burdens eased.
But since mid-March this year many fishermen do not venture out to the sea fearing attacks by the SLN patrolling the seas in Dvora speed boats and water jets, the statement said.
On March 19 the SLN attacked a fishing boat injuring three fishermen and damaging their vessel and equipment. On March 20 a SLN Dvora boat attacked coastal villages, injuring several civilians and damaging houses. On March 21, two labourers on the shore sustaining serious injuries in another attack. Since then these fisher families have been pushed into severe economic hardship unable to fish, the statement said.
Fisher folk from Trincomalee protested last Monday demanding they be allowed to fish in Trincomalee Harbour Sea, or given relief to enable them to live without the income from fishing.
Hundreds of men, women and children held a two-hour protest in front of the Trincomalee office of the SLMM, protesting against the SLN’s complete ban on fishing in Trincomalee Harbour Sea from the beginning of this year. Since then about two hundred fisher families living around the area have lost their daily income and fighting for their survival.
“We have informed about our plight to the security establishment and political leaders. But up to now fishing ban is not lifted or relaxed nor are we provided with any relief,” said Mr. R. Pakkiarasa, Secretary of the Arasady St. Joseph’s Fishermen Co-operative Society in a memorandum handed over to Mr. Ove Jansen, head of the SLMM in Trincomalee.
On March 25 a group of SLN soldiers had severely assaulted some fishermen when they were fishing from the shore and they were not allowed to remove their fishing nets from the sea by the SLN soldiers, the memorandum stated.
Meanwhile, harassment by the SLN of members of displaced families from Ponnalai west in the western coastal area of Jaffna district has increased and the situation has deteriorated such that villagers are fearful for the safety of young girls, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, S Gajendran said in a complaint he filed with the Jaffna Branch of the SLMM.
SLN has recently forced the residents of Ponnalai West out of their homes and made the village area part of the Jaffna High Security Zone (HSZ), according to civil society sources in Jaffna. The displaced families have found shelter in the temporary accomodation built by the UNHCR.
Due to lack of basic facilities the families continue to cross over into the HSZ area through the SLN check points to draw water from the wells close to their homes. The families had complained to the TNA parliamentarians of the difficulties faced by young women from the UNHCR camp.
Amongst the most serious developments, the Sri Lankan military has slapped a total exclusion zone on the northern waters. The ban bars large fishing boats, on threat of being sunk, from entering waters up to 12miles from the shore without explicit written permission – which Tamils struggle to get from the Sinhala dominated military.
Local sea-going bans had always been in place, in violation of the February 2002 ceasefire agreement (CFA), but the new directive is a total exclusion in the northern seas.
According to the Sri Lankan military, the ban follows the destruction of a Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) gunboat in which 8 seamen were killed when a trawler they had stopped blew up, also killing its six occupants. The military says the boat was smuggling weapons for the LTTE, but the movement has denied any involvement. The boat was Sinhala owned.
The SLN and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) collaborating with paramilitaries had violated the ceasefire agreement in the LTTE controlled Muttur east and Vakarai area said Mr. S. Elilan, Trincomalee district political head of the Liberation Tigers Saturday as he lodged three separate complaints with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).
Mr. Elilan told Tamilnet that Saturday afternoon around 1.45 p.m. the third violation of ceasefire agreement had taken place in Sampoor coastal area when SLN soldiers stationed in Norway island off west of Sampoor coast had fired heavy weapons at fishermen who were fishing in the sea compelling them to flee for their lives.
“I brought incident to the notice of the SLMM in Trincomalee. The response from the SLN was that they had fired towards the Sampoor coast accidentally when they were testing their weapons. I asked the SLMM whether the coastal villages where thousands of civilians reside had become the testing ground for the SLN to test their weapons. I told the SLMM that it’s a serious violation of the ceasefire agreement and to cause an inquiry into my complaint,” Mr. Elilan told TamilNet.
The SLA committed two more ceasefire violations at Thonithandamadu in Vakarai division – one on Saturday early morning and the other few hours later between Maruthankerni and Panichchankerni, he said.
At Thonithandamadu, SLA troops and accompanying paramilitaries had attacked the LTTE sentry post in the area, even firing mortar shells. Residents of the village had fled from the area and several civilian houses were damaged by shells which also killed four cows.
The second attack took place around nine in the morning between Maruthankerni and Panichchankerni. LTTE cadres had enegaged a group of SLA soldiers and paramilitaries waiting in ambush in no-man land to attack the LTTE sentry point. A firefight ensued between both parties before the SLA had fled from the area. One LTTE cadre was injured.
Last Tuesday, more than 150 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and around 50 paramilitary cadres belonging to three paramilitary groups rounded up five villages in Valaichenai, north of Batticaloa and warned the villagers against supporting the LTTE.
The paramilitary cadres, travelling in SLA vehicles, summoned the people to Pechiyamman temple grounds and held a meeting where key operatives of Karuna Group warned the people against supporting the Liberation Tigers.
Cadres from the ENDLF paramilitary group and a key operative of the Eelam Peoples’ Democratic Party (EPDP) attached to the Sri Lanka Army camp in Valaichenai Harbour also took part in the operation, villagers told TamilNet. The EPDP is allied to the ruling United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance government and the party’s leader is a minister.
Heavily armed SLA troopers were seen patrolling Kannan Kiramam, Vinayagapuram, Kannakipuram, Pethalai, Puthukudiyiruppu and guarding the Pechiyamman temple site while four key paramilitary operatives, Pratheepan, Jeyanthan, Ajith and Ranjith were addressing the roughly 250 people summoned to the temple grounds.
Johnson Jeyakanthan, known by his nom-de-guerre Pratheepan was one of speakers who came to the site with Markkan, a key paramilitary operative, a resident said.
The Sri Lankan Police had detained Jeyakanthan in March 2005 following an assassination attempt on Kuveni, the political head of LTTE’s Batticaloa-Amparai women wing. He was a member of the LTTE and had defected in 1992 when he was facing disciplinary action for attempting to molest a girl in Valaichenai.
Jeyakanthan, who instructed the people to obey the instructions and be supportive to Karuna’s mission, said his group demanded “total support” from the villagers.
Those of the villagers who fail to yield support to Karuna’s mission, will be integrated by “military means,” the paramilitary operative told the gathering.
There were 300 cadres involved in the search operation, Jeyakanthan claimed in his address. He described himself as a political cadre of the TMVP (Tamileelam Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal). At the end of the meeting he asked the villagers to prepare 150 lunch packs.
Kathirkamathamby Jeyaseelan, another Karuna Group operative from Kannan Kiramam in Valaichenai, also addressed the villagers.
A paramilitary operative who identified himself as “Ranjith master” said he was under arrest in India and was sent to Sri Lanka following a personal request made by Karuna.
“If you have any inquiries, come to our office located in Kovindan street in Batticaloa town,” Ranjith told the villagers, adding the Karuna Group was also making arrangements to open a camp in Valaichenai.
The paramilitary cadres then went to the SLA camp in Valaichenai Harbour, according to the villagers. An intelligence operative of the EPDP, Siva, who operates from the site, was also seen at the site.
In other violence, the severely beaten body of Thambirajah Thankarajah, a father of two who lost his wife in 2004 tsunami, was recovered from a well Tuesday morning in the Onthachchimadam housing scheme in Kaluwanchikudy, south of Batticaloa. Police said he had been beaten and stabbed with a sharp instrument before his body was dumped into the well.
Another man, a young father of two, was also found knifed to death in Kaddapadu in Kalkuda, Valaichenai. The victim, Mr. Kulathunga Regikanth, 26, had been subjected to death threats from paramilitary operatives for some months, according to his relatives. A group of twenty armed men were waiting for him 300 meters from Valaichenai Police station.
Relatives of the victim named Kathirgamathamby Jeyaseelan, the senior cadre of the paramilitary Karuna Group, as being behind the death threats made earlier to Regikanth.
Muttur Divisional Fishermen’s Co-operative Societies Union (MDFCSU) said a statement released Sunday in Trincomalee that more than two thousand fisher families have seriously affected economically following attacks by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) on the coastal villages in the Muttur east.
Many Muttur families solely depend on fishing for their living livelihood. During the war situation too these families lived on their income derived from fishing on a limited scale. But with the February 2002 ceasefire agreement income from fishing improved and fisher families economic burdens eased.
But since mid-March this year many fishermen do not venture out to the sea fearing attacks by the SLN patrolling the seas in Dvora speed boats and water jets, the statement said.
On March 19 the SLN attacked a fishing boat injuring three fishermen and damaging their vessel and equipment. On March 20 a SLN Dvora boat attacked coastal villages, injuring several civilians and damaging houses. On March 21, two labourers on the shore sustaining serious injuries in another attack. Since then these fisher families have been pushed into severe economic hardship unable to fish, the statement said.
Fisher folk from Trincomalee protested last Monday demanding they be allowed to fish in Trincomalee Harbour Sea, or given relief to enable them to live without the income from fishing.
Hundreds of men, women and children held a two-hour protest in front of the Trincomalee office of the SLMM, protesting against the SLN’s complete ban on fishing in Trincomalee Harbour Sea from the beginning of this year. Since then about two hundred fisher families living around the area have lost their daily income and fighting for their survival.
“We have informed about our plight to the security establishment and political leaders. But up to now fishing ban is not lifted or relaxed nor are we provided with any relief,” said Mr. R. Pakkiarasa, Secretary of the Arasady St. Joseph’s Fishermen Co-operative Society in a memorandum handed over to Mr. Ove Jansen, head of the SLMM in Trincomalee.
On March 25 a group of SLN soldiers had severely assaulted some fishermen when they were fishing from the shore and they were not allowed to remove their fishing nets from the sea by the SLN soldiers, the memorandum stated.
Meanwhile, harassment by the SLN of members of displaced families from Ponnalai west in the western coastal area of Jaffna district has increased and the situation has deteriorated such that villagers are fearful for the safety of young girls, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, S Gajendran said in a complaint he filed with the Jaffna Branch of the SLMM.
SLN has recently forced the residents of Ponnalai West out of their homes and made the village area part of the Jaffna High Security Zone (HSZ), according to civil society sources in Jaffna. The displaced families have found shelter in the temporary accomodation built by the UNHCR.
Due to lack of basic facilities the families continue to cross over into the HSZ area through the SLN check points to draw water from the wells close to their homes. The families had complained to the TNA parliamentarians of the difficulties faced by young women from the UNHCR camp.
