Summary of incidents - apart from major clashes - since November 6

The week to 12 November saw 27 people killed, 11 injured, 3 disappeared and 8 arrested. However, these figures do not include the major incidents of violence, which saw scores of civilians and combatants killed.

In Jaffna, twenty one people were affected by the violence, of whom 15 were killed and three injured and three disappeared. In Batticaloa, six people were killed and five injured. Eight people were arrested in Colombo during the week. In Vavuniya three people were killed and two injured, while two people were killed in Trincomalee, and one each in Mannar and Amparai.


November 12

● The bodies of two civilians, including a 14-year old school boy who was abducted by men in white van, were found dumped near Aanaippanthy junction, a suburb of Jaffna town. The victims were identified as Ravi Rajeevan, 14 and Thangaroopan Jeeva, 21, of Vellaipanthi, Kondavil East.

Ravi Rajeevan was a grade-7 student at Kondavil Paramsothi Vidyalayam. He was abducted from his home Saturday. Villagers said a SLA truck was observed in the area at the time of his abduction.

Thangaroopan Jeeva was interrogated by SLA soldiers during a cordon and search operation in Kondavil Saturday. He was arrested by the soldiers later on the day. Thangaroopan returned from UAE about 2 months ago and he was to get married within days.

The bodies were found near the spot where two Sri Lanka Army Intelligence Officers were killed in a claymore attack on Thursday.

● Armed men in a white van abducted three youths in Chunnakam, Jaffna, officials of the SLHRC in Jaffna said. Relatives of the abducted say that SLA soldiers operating from the Atchelu Army camp are responsible for the abductions.

Chelliah Kumarasooriar, 30, a day laborer from Ikkiran, Kantharodai in Chunnakam was abducted by armed men in a white van. The men assaulted Kumarasooriar's wife and children before driving off with the victim.

Saravanapavananthan Hariharan, 24, an employee at the private airline operator Aero Lanka, was abducted by armed men in Chunnakam junction.

Another youth, Balasundarampillai Kamalraj, 23, a day labourer, was abducted by a similar armed group from his residence in Kantharodai Road, Chunnakam.

November 11

● Alaharsamy Saravanakumar, 35 a trader who owned a business near Sathirai Santhi (junction) along KKS road, within the HSZ in Jaffna, was shot dead by gunmen riding a motorbike. In the same incident, Nadarasa Nishanthan, 24, from Vannarpannai, working as an assistant at the same business was seriously injured.

● A SLA trooper on guard duty at the sentry point located close to Malisanthi in Vadamaradchy along Jaffna-Point Pedro road was shot and seriously injured by gunmen.

● Two armed men on motor cycle shot two youths at a bus stop at Araiyampathy, Batticaloa, seriously injuring both. One of the youths succumbed to his injuries while being rushed to hospital. The dead youth was identified as Krishnapillai Mohanadas, 24 and the injured is Amirthalingam Thineshkar, 22, both cousins and residents of Selavnagar in Araiyampathy. The cousins, after finishing work at Mohanadas' father's hotel on Araiyampathy Main street, sat talking at the bus stop close to their house as they usually do, when the gunmen shot at them at close range.

● Two armed men on motor cycle lobbed a hand grenade on the Kodaikallaru police sentry post in Kalavanchikudy, Batticaloa, seriously injuring a policeman. The policemen at the sentry point opened fire on the attackers but they managed to escape unhurt. The injured policeman was identified as S. K. Kumara, 28.

November 10

● Nadarajah Raviraj, 44, Jaffna district TNA parliamentarian was shot in Colombo. (See separate story.)

● Heavy fighting was reported in the seas off Trincomalee and Nilaveli. Fishermen in Trincomalee reported a big explosion and a series of explosions following it.

● Jesudas Sabaratnam, 35, a civilian from Nalanthanai in Kayts, was shot dead. Gunmen who arrived at Jesudas's Nalanthanai house, shot him at close range and escaped.

● Armed men shot dead a man at Alaiyadivembu area, Amparai. The victim is around 35 years old.

● Three unidentified gunmen took away a tractor driver from his home for interrogation in Marutha Nagar in Valaichenai, and later shot him dead near a refugee camp on the Vinayagapuram School road. Bullet wounds in the victim's head indicated a T-56 gun was used in the killing. The victim, a father of two, was identified as Subramaniam Chandrebose, 31.

November 9

● A Sea Tiger flotilla clashed with Sri Lanka Navy in the Northern waters killing 25 SLN troopers, capturing 4 troopers alive and destroying two Dvora Fast Attack Crafts. (See separate story)

● Unknown persons detonated a claymore device hidden along the Jaffna-Pt. Pedro road between Nallur temple and Anaipanthy junction in Jaffna, killing two SLA Intelligence Officers riding a motor cycle. A sixteen year old girl, Y. Panuja of Arasady in Jaffna, riding bicycle along the same road was seriously injured and admitted to hospital.

● Arumugam Vignarajah, 50, the President of Koddady Fisheries Society, was shot dead while cycling home from a nearby Temple. Koddady is located in the boarder of SLA HSZ Point Pedro. He was a Tamil activist involved in organizing protests against SLA harassment and violence in Jaffna district.

● Unidentified gunmen shot and injured Sinnaththurai Baskaran, 36, from Avarangal, in Valikamam East region, in front of the Jaffna branch office of the SLHRC located close to the SLA's Civil Administration Office. Local residents said Mr Baskaran may have earned SLA's ire because of his involvement in exposing the recent SLA's killing of five youths travelling in an auto-rickshaw in Puththur area. Baskaran led the SLHRC officials to the site of the killing and also openly took part in the agitation against SLA.

● Unidentified gunmen shot and seriously injured a trooper at Madathady junction SLA mini camp near the Water Tank area on the Jaffna Main Street. The SLA trooper succumbed to his injuries while being rushed to hospital.

● Two unidentified gun men shot dead a family man at his house in Alavetty area in front of Alavetty Arunothaya College. Kanthaiah Sivanesan 48, a father of two, happened to be alone home as his wife and children had gone out.

November 8

● Scores of civilians were killed when the SLA fired Multi-Barrel Rockets and artillery shells targeting Kathiraveli, a coastal hamlet 15 km north of Vaaharai, hit a school where five thousand Internally Displaced People had sought refuge. (See separate story.)

● SLA fired artillery shells crossed over the Head of SLMM Major General Lars Johan Sølvberg and his delegation who were visiting the LTTE controlled Pooneryn jetty to undertake a feasibility study on Colombo's latest suggestion in opening Pooneryin Sangupitty Road as an alternative to A9. SLA fired artillery shells exploded 200 meters behind in Pooneryn jetty area while the delegation was visiting the site for inspection. The Norwegian Major General returned safely, LTTE officials told TamilNet. While returning, artillery shells exploded at 20 meter distance.

● Unidentified armed men in military fatigues opened fire on a home guard road patrol unit, killing one on the spot and seriously injuring two at Thirvagama in Vavuniya district. Sunil Jayanth was killed on the spot while the two injured home guards were rushed to hospital.

● Two dead bodies with their hands bound were recovered by Vavuniya police three weeks earlier were buried at government expense as they were not claimed.

● SLA soldiers and police cordoned off and searched Kottawa area in Colombo arresting eight persons including six Tamils in connection with the recovery of a 40 mm hand grenade found on the top of a building in Kottawa area. The six Tamils arrested are staff employed in a Foreign Employment Agency and a Photograph Centre located in Kottawa.

● The body of an elderly disabled man, who was abducted by three unidentified armed men Tuesday from his house near Kanthaswamy Temple in Kopay north, was recovered at Thirunelveli Dairy Farm area in Jaffna, with bullet wounds. Kathiravelu Selvarasa, father of seven, had lost his leg in a mine explosion and moved about with a prosthetic leg. Relatives of Selavarasa said that the abductors took him away saying they wanted to interrogate him.

● Unidentified armed men shot dead Kathirgamathamby Gowri, 31, a mother of two children, at her house on Barathi road at Arumugathan Kudirippu in Eravur. Her husband is working in the Middle East.

● A former SLA trooper was killed in a bomb blast at his house in Eravur. The Police suspect that the bomb may have detonated while the trooper was inspecting the device, or it may have been planted in his house by his local enemies.
The dead man was identified as Ibrahim Mohamed Nazeer, 37, a trader by profession. Nazeer, a father of three children, was alone at his house when the bomb exploded. The explosion completely destroyed Nazeer's house while causing some damage to neighbouring houses.

November 7

● The bodies of two youths were recovered by the Uppuveli Police at Kanniya, Trincomalee, and the body of one youth at Allesgarden, north of the eastern port town. All three had been shot.

● Unidentified armed men, alleged to be orthodox Muslims, in a white van lobbed hand grenades and opened fire on Abdur Rauf Moulawi, the Islamic religious teacher belonging to Sufi sect, and some others standing in front of his office near Kathankudy Bathriya Mosque in Batticaloa, injuring four. Ideological conflicts between the orthodox Muslims and the Sufi sect, two rival Islamic sectarian groups in Kathankudy, were the reason for this attack, added the police. Abdur Rauf Mowlavi, a leader of Sufi Islamic sect, escaped without any injuries.

● A SLA Intelligence officer was seriously injured near Nelliady junction, Vadamaradchy, when unknown gunmen shot at two SLA officers riding a motorbike. The SLA Intelligence officers were riding along Jaffna, Point Pedro road after inspecting SLA patrols in several areas in Vadamaradchy when the gunmen emerged from the Vathiry-Kodikamam road, sprayed gunfire towards the SLA officers, and escaped.

● Four women were injured when a mortar shell launched from the LTTE area targeting the Murkodanchenai SLA camp fell and exploded on a house near the SLA camp. SLA officials allege that the LTTE shell, intended to strike Karuna paramilitary group’s newly opened office at Murakodanchenai, had missed its target injuring civilians. The injured women were identified as Chandramathy 28, Indira 40, Kanagamma, 48 and Saraswathy, 50.

● Several hundred residents belonging to more than 100 families, fled from Thihilivettai, Illupaiyadi Mummari and Siruthenkal villages in the Kudumbimalai area in LTTE held area in Batticaloa and sought shelter in the neighbouring jungle to escape mortar fire from the Valaichenai Brigade SLA camp.

November 6

● The SLA launched artillery attacks from Valaichenai SLA camp and Karadikulam SLA camp towards Vaharai amid troop deployment at Gajuwatte SLA camp. The LTTE's Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan said the SLAF carried out 2 sorties of aerial bombardment in Paalchenai and Vammivedduvan in Vaharai region in Batticaloa district. "All communication and transportation facilities towards Vaharai has been cut off. Even the small amount of humanitarian supplies reaching the region twice a week, has been blocked by the Sri Lankan military," Mr. Ilanthirayan told TamilNet.

● Many Tamils living in the Habarana area, where more than 100 SLN troopers were killed in a blast, are moving out of their homes as Tamils are being arrested in the frequent cordon and search operations held in the area by the SLA and the police.

● SLA soldiers shot dead two youths in Thirunelveli, Jaffna. SLA alleged that the youths were cadres of Liberation Tigers and that they recovered weapons from the youths. Thirunevely residents said they heard gunfire and grenade explosions behind Palay Road, near Kaali Kovil (Temple).

● Mathiyaparanam Nimalchandran, 38, was shot dead by unknown gunmen who arrived at his home in motorbikes.

● Kathirgamanathan Lalitha, 45, a mother of seven, was shot dead by unknown gunmen at her home in North West Alvai, Vadamaradchi. She also had deep cut wounds on her face, suggesting that she had struggled with the assailants before being shot.

● Unidentified armed men took away a fisherman from his home in Valaichenai, Batticaloa, and shot him dead. Thambipillai Karunakaran, 34, father of two, of Kinaiyady Nagthambiran Temple Street, was shot three times in the head with a 9mm pistol.

● The body of an unidentified male who washed ashore on the Talaimannar coast was buried at the government expense as no one came forward to claim the body. Post-mortem examination revealed that the person had died due to drowning.

A United Nations official Monday accused Sri Lankan government security forces of recruiting child soldiers on behalf of an allied paramilitary group which is also fighting Tamil Tigers.

The special advisor to the UN Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Allan Rock, told reporters in Colombo that he had evidence of direct involvement of troops in forcibly enlisting children for the paramilitary group.

"Sri Lankan security forces rounded up children to be recruited by the Karuna faction," Mr. Rock said at the end of a 10-day mission to study the situation of children in the embattled island.

It is the first time the UN has made such a charge against Colombo.

"We encountered both direct and indirect evidence of... complicity and participation," Mr. Rock further said.

He said there was both eyewitness and anecdotal evidence to back up his claims.

He spoke of 13 and 14-year-old children kidnapped from villages, and no arrests or investigation being carried out by the security forces.

In a statement the Sri Lankan Armed forces said Mr Rock's claims that government troops were actively involved in the recruitment of child soldiers were "regrettable".

Sri Lankan security forces say they are "perturbed" by the "completely misleading" allegations, the BBC reported.

In a statement the Sri Lankan military said Mr Rock's claims that government troops were actively involved in the recruitment of child soldiers were "regrettable".

"Security forces... vehemently deny having any involvement whatsoever with the LTTE breakaway group for abductions in Batticaloa," the statement said.

Mr Rock said the fact that Sri Lankan troops were complicit in the recruitment of child soldiers meant that the Tigers would continue to do so, as it corroded the rule of law.

The Tamil Tigers have long been accused of under-age recruitment. Last month, the Tigers outlawed the recruitment of under-17s for military service.

UNICEF lists 1,598 outstanding cases of under-age recruitment by the Tigers, 649 of which are still under the age of 18. The Tigers have promised to release all under-age fighterss by Jan 1, 2007.

TNA parliamentarians protested last week outside the UN offices in Colombo, condemning violence by the Sri Lankan government. Photo TamilNet

Saying that the Sri Lankan state’s recognition of the Tamils’ historical existence as a people living in the Northeast of the island was realised in the establishment of the Northeast province in 1987, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), charged Nov 7 that it was the duty of President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government to uphold the merger as it constituted a recognition of Tamil grievances.

However, the Sri Lankan government rejected the TNA appeal, saying a (re-)merger was conditional on a referendum of the people of the east – reversing the 1987 Indo-Sri Lanka Accord which, bringing in the merger, said a de-merger would be conditional on a referundum.

“The Government will never act, and has no power to act against the ruling of the Supreme Court (SC) that the merger of North and East Provinces was illegal,” Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, Ratnasiri Wickramanayake, announced in Parliament.

The exchange came a month after Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court upheld a petition by the ultra-Sinhala nationalist JVP (Janatha Vimukthi Perumana) that the procedures by which the Northern and Eastern provinces were merged in 1987 were improper.

The Premier said government was moving to divide the Northeast provincial head office based in Trincomalee so as to administer the two regions separately.

The TNA has appealed to India and the rest of the international community to support the NE merger, saying Parliament would back such a move – a reference to the main opposition UNP’s promised support.

The TNA’s Parliamentary Group leader, Mr. R. Sampanthan, spoke during the Nov 7 debate in Parliament on the extension of the Emergency.

The TNA argues that what is required now is the government takes steps to ensure the merger is effected correctly, both to honour the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, an international treaty, and to ensure the agreement with the Tamils isn’t abrogated.

“We submit that it is the duty of this Government to take the necessary action to restore the status quo ante pertaining to the merger,” Mr. Sampanthan said.

“Procedural or technical flaws in regard to the process of merger cannot be an excuse for the non-merger,” he said, in reference to the Supreme Court ruling which last month challenged the legal procedure by which the merger had been effected.

“There is a duty cast upon the President to uphold the course of action adopted by each one of his four predecessors over a period of 18 years,” Mr. Sampanthan said.

Moreover, he noted that the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement “did not make the constitution of the Northern and Eastern Provinces as one administrative unit having one Provincial Council conditional upon the fulfilment of any other event.”

“There is a duty cast on the President to fulfill Sri Lanka’s obligations under an International Treaty signed with neighboring India.”

“Technical grounds cannot be a valid excuse for non fulfillment of Sri Lanka’s obligation under an International Treaty,” Mr. Sampanthan said.

International law stipulates a state “may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty” with another state, Mr. Sampanthan said, referring to the 1969 Vienna Convention, the Law of Treaties.

“If the Government makes the appropriate decision, this Parliament I have little doubt will support such a measure to restore the status quo ante,” he said.

He was referring to the United National Party (UNP)’s support for such a move were the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) – led government to make it.

“We appeal to India and the International Community to appreciate that the restoration of the status quo ante relating to the merger is an indispensable concomitant of the peace process and urge that they contribute their best efforts to ensure that the same is done at the earliest.”

He described the moves to de-merge the Northeast as striking “at the very root of the peace process” and as nullifying the process.

“It was the struggle of the Tamil people in the North-East for substantial self-rule, which brought about new Constitutional arrangements,” he pointed out.

“The Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement and the subsequent legislative measures and arrangements were the consequence of this struggle and were intended to accommodate legitimate Tamil aspirations.”

Moreover, “any contrived dismantling of the North-East merger would remove the corner stone of the peace process. If such a situation continues, the peace process must inevitably crumble,” he said.

Neither was the Agreement’s recognition of the Tamils’ historic existence in the Northeast a novelty at the time.

“The concept of a Tamil linguistic region first came about in 1957 under the Bandaranayake-Chelvanayagam Pact which provided for the creation of regions in the Northern and Eastern Provinces and for the amalgamation of regions beyond Provincial limit,” he said. “If the BC Pact was implemented this would have become a reality in 1957.”

He pointed out “the Northern and Eastern Provinces enjoy the same linguistic character under both the 1972 and 1978 Constitutions and Tamil is the language of administration and the courts, whereas in all the other Provinces it is Sinhala.”

“The linguistic contiguity continues through the Northern and Eastern Provinces. Even the present Constitution recognizes that the majority of inhabitants of both the Northern and Eastern Provinces are Tamil speaking.”

Action Against Hunger, the international aid agency, who lost seventeen workers in August in a massacre blamed on Sri Lankan troops held a commemoration service last Monday for the victims.

ACF also pressed for observers and experts independent of the Sri Lankan government to be involved in the investigation into the massacre, which is to be conducted under the aegis of President Mahinda Rajapakse.

ACF staff in Colombo released pigeons on Nov. 6 to commemorate the deaths of 17 of their colleagues shot dead by Sri Lankan troops three months previously. Photo Sanka Vidanagama/AFP/Getty Images.

In keeping with Sri Lankan tradition, according to which families come together to commemorate a death after three months- a memorial service was organised in Colombo in presence of ACF members, representatives of civil society, the UN and local and international NGOs working in Sri Lanka.

ACF also requested all members of the ACF International Network in its 40 countries of intervention, as well as the larger humanitarian community, to observe a minute's silence on Monday, 6th November 2006, at 5 pm (local time).

“On 4th August 2006, a massacre unprecedented in the history of NGO's was committed against humanitarian aid workers,” ACF said in a statement.

On August 6, 2006, the seventeen ACF were found shot dead execution style at the organisation's base in Muttur.

Fifteen had been lined up on the floor and shot. Two were found shot dead in a vehicle outside.

All but one of the workers – an ethnic Muslim – were Tamils.

The 13 men and four women, aged 23 to 54, worked mostly as engineers on water sanitation and farm projects for the charity.

International Ceasefire monitors have blamed Sri Lankan troops who recaptured Muttur from the Tamil Tigers in early August for the killings.

Following the discovery massacre, Sri Lankan military forces blocked off the area and prevented ACF officials and international ceasefire monitors from retrieving the bodies of the victims.

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) said it "cannot find reasons for the restrictions of movements... acceptable, thereby strongly indicating the Government of Sri Lanka's (GoSL) eagerness to conceal the matter from the SLMM".

“When NGO employees are targeted, the whole humanitarian community is directly affected. If the independence and neutrality of humanitarian workers is not respected, then their activities are undermined.”

ACF said it “reaffirms its commitment to ensure that the official investigation progresses and that all evidence is brought to light about the circumstances surrounding the massacre.

“From the outset, Action Against Hunger has done its utmost to ensure that those responsible for the massacre are identified and brought to justice.”

“Action Against Hunger is following the investigation closely and has mobilised its partners, the international community,” the NGO said.

The massacre was the worst attack on humanitarian workers since a suicide bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003 killed 22 UN staff.

As part of the investigation, 11 bodies were exhumed and transferred to Colombo on October 18 for an autopsy.

The post-mortems are taking place under the observation of Australian experts.

The earlier autopsies, undertaken by the government, were inconclusive.

But staff at the Trincomalee Hospital reportedly complained against the unusual procedure for performing autopsies of the slain workers.

The hospital's judicial medical officer was reportedly on leave while the government brought in a replacement from Anuradhapura rather than allowing the hospital director to conduct the autopsies.

Under renewed international pressure, the government had no other option but to exhume the dead bodies and conduct autopsies in presence of the Australian observers.

According to Sri Lankan law, the post-mortem report should be transferred to the magistrate in charge of the case, with the conclusions to be published during the next hearing.

In theory, the autopsy could reveal evidence that point toward the killers, such as the type of ammunition used.

But ACF is sceptical.

“Perhaps. But in this kind of situation we have to be very cautious because it can be manipulated," said Benoit Miribel, ACF's general director.

“So you never know who has used these arms. It could be one element. But the key factor to know the truth will be through the eye-witnesses."

Stung by international criticism, the Sri Lankan government has reluctantly agreed to allow international observers to participate in its investigations.

But not before lashing out at the SLMM and its then head, Maj. Gen. Ulf Henricsson and rejecting their findings.

The inquest began in Muttur but has since been transferred twice.

The investigation, along with probes into several other major incidents of violence is to be overseen by a committee to be appointed by President Rajapakse.

The government had initially, under intense international pressure, agreed to an independent international investigating committee.

But Colombo later withdrew the offer and the President has agreed to a committee under his purview with international participation.

The move has been criticised by human rights groups, including the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR).

President Rajapakse has made it clear that the so-called International Commission of Inquiry is being established essentially “in the light of attempts being made in various quarters to discredit the Government, Security Forces and the Police,” ACHR said.

“In other words, the government is setting up the International Commission of Inquiry to give ‘credit’ to [itself] as the SLMM has allegedly been discrediting it.”

In its statement last week, ACF, was careful not to reject the inquiry, but reiterated the international observers should be independent and free to comment publicly about the investigation.

“The creation of an investigatory commission including Sri Lankan representatives and international observers, under the aegis of the president, is a step that would demonstrate the will to ensure transparency while respecting the sovereignty of the Sri Lankan State,” ACF said.

“However, the international observers should be independent and recognised as not only having the mandate to observe, but also the freedom to make public their conclusions.”

The Muttur massacre should be at the top of the list of priorities for any such investigatory commission that is created, ACF argued..

“In any case, in view of the seriousness of the Muttur massacre and what is at stake for the international humanitarian community, any initiative that could help bring the truth to light should not be neglected.”

AT 2.30 last Monday morning, K Thangaraja, a 46-year-old tractor driver from eastern Sri Lanka, stood knee-deep in seawater fearing his end was near.

Surrounding him was the murky confluence of the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean – the barrier between his home in Sri Lanka and a new life in India.

Five hours earlier, a fisherman had pushed Thangaraja and 19 relatives, including young children, from his 26ft wooden boat and on to a shallow sand bank. “Someone will be along shortly to take you to the Indian coast,” he said, before hurrying off into the darkness.

No one came. Not until 4.30 the following afternoon, when they were nearly unconscious from exhaustion, hunger, and dehydration. An Indian fishing vessel happened to spot their improvised white flags and brought them ashore.

“It was the worst experience of my life,” said Thangaraja. “If I had to do it all over again, I would take my chances in Sri Lanka.”

Yet for Tamils now caught in the crossfire of an increasingly bloody civil war in Sri Lanka, staying is not an option.

Last Wednesday, at least 23 civilians were killed and more than 100 injured when government shells slammed into a school in a LTTE-controlled area.

Since January, more than 16,000 refugees from Sri Lanka’s Jaffna peninsula have fled to the shores of Tamil Nadu, India’s southeastern state, where they fan out in refugee camps across the region and receive basic support from the Indian government.

The refugees who have arrived in India constitute only a small fraction of nearly 200,000 who have been displaced since April.

But they represent some of the most desperate cases – those who have given up hope for a quick end to hostilities and are trying to start anew.

“It is an expensive and difficult journey to the Tamil Nadu coast,” said Meenakshi Ganguly of the New York-based Human Rights Watch. “These are people who are so terrified that they believe survival is impossible back home.”

The number of monthly arrivals has decreased significantly since August, when over 5,700 arrived on the shores of southern India; so far this month less than 200 have arrived.

That is partly because of the weather – rough seas and thunderstorms make the crossing far more perilous in November and December. It is also due to the hope many Sri Lankans had for the peace talks that took place but broke apart with no resolution last month.

With the surge in recent violence, aid workers are expecting an increase in the number of arrivals in the coming weeks and months ahead.

The cost of being smuggled to India is anywhere from 6,000 to 15,000 Sri Lankan rupees. It is the equivalent of just £29 to £73 but refugees often sell property or family jewellery to pay for the smuggling and carry with them only a small satchel of clothes, often tossed overboard if the journey becomes too rough.

It is not the first time India has hosted Tamil refugees. Tens of thousands have come in successive waves since the war began in 1983.

Manoharan Bijayaraj, 49, arrived in late September, his third time in India.

As a union activist for Tamil fishing cooperatives in eastern Sri Lanka he was shot seven times in an attempt on his life in early September. He still experiences a dull pain around the pink two-inch vertical scar below his left arm where a bullet lodged itself.

“They want to wipe out us Tamils,” he said. “There is no solution through military means, nor through dialogue. UN Peacekeepers must come to Sri Lanka.”

The official conduit for new arrivals in India is the Mandapam transit camp, a fenced-off series of dilapidated one-story cement apartment blocks with communal water taps.

It was originally established and controlled by the British until 1964 as a transit site for thousands of poor Indians being sent to sprawling tea estates in Sri Lanka and elsewhere in the Commonwealth. Today they come in the other direction.

Mandapam has more than 5,000 residents, the majority of whom have been there for months, waiting to relocate elsewhere in Tamil Nadu state.

Although conditions in the camp are substandard, its leaders are reticent to voice their concerns too loudly.

“We do not complain about the conditions because just next to us there are Indian citizens who don’t get even what we get,” said SC Chandrahassan, an officer with the Organisation for Eelam Refugees Rehabilitation, which helps run the 130 refugee camps throughout Tamil Nadu.

The Indian government provides the refugees with 400 Indian rupees, about £1.94, a month per head of household and a little less for every other member, as well as cooking materials, a refugee ID card, and rice subsidised to 1983 prices, which comes to less than a couple pennies a kilo, far below what Indians receive on social security.

Work, and not just the flight from risk of arrest or attack, is another major reason refugees cite for opting for a new life in India. They can join the informal economy, taking jobs in rural areas that poor Indians don’t want as the vast country’s economy surges ahead.

Vikram Raja, 36, a mason who arrived in early September with his wife and three young children, starts sitting by the highway every morning looking to be picked up for a day’s work. He has worked two days in two months, but doesn’t regret the move.

“My life was in danger there,” he said. “The army will arrest anyone without any grounds.”

His home was destroyed in the 2004 tsunami. His mother, father and sister live in displaced persons camps in Sri Lanka, but Raja wanted the opportunity to provide for his family and not sit idly in a camp, which he considers unsafe.

Raja, like many refugees with children, was also increasingly concerned for the safety of his son.

“If anything happened to my children we would be without any help,” he said.

Sri Lanka was defiant in the face of international criticism after Army artillery pounded a refugee camp last week, killing scores of civilians and wounding a hundred more.

“While we regret this whole episode, we also say that national security is utmost and it has to be maintained," Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, Defence Spokesman told reporters.

“And as such defensive action by the authorities is something that is inevitable.”

The government also claimed the LTTE had fired artillery from near the IDP’s camp at Vakarai and was thus to blame for the deaths.

But international ceasefire monitors who spoke to survivors dismissed the claim.

"Our monitors saw there were no military installations in the camp area, so we would certainly like some answers from the military regarding the nature and reasons of this attack," Helen Olafsdottir, spokeswoman for Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), said.

Sri Lanka troops at the border checkpoint refused to allow seriously injured civilians to be transported to Batticaloa and delayed Red Cross personnel and other aid workers from reaching the shattered camp.

And unbowed by international protests, Colombo continues to insist that national security is paramount.

Perhaps it is because for all the harsh words, there is little the international community is doing in practice to compel Sri Lanka to desist from hitting civilians.

Civilians have been targeted by Sri Lankan artillery and airstrikes several times in the past year and repeated international protests haven’t been matched by curtailing of aid or other punitive measures.

Even when the US protested about the shelling of the Vaharai refugee camp that killed at least 42 civilians and wounded a hundred, Washington, a staunch ally of Sri Lanka, did not condemn the action – it merely ‘strongly regretted’ the massacre.

But the US pointedly blamed the Colombo military and demanded punitive measures against those responsible. US irritation was fuelled by the Army’s firing artillery at the head of the international monitors in Sri Lanka.

“The United States strongly regrets the loss of innocent life caused by the shelling by the Sri Lankan military of a camp for internally displaced persons in the Vakarai region in eastern Sri Lanka on November 8,” the State Department said.

“We exhort the Sri Lankan Government to adopt corrective measures to prevent civilian casualties that also take into account instances where civilians may be used as ‘human shields’ in the future,”

“We call upon the Government of Sri Lanka to conduct an immediate, independent investigation into the November 8 incidents and bring the responsible parties to justice.”

“We are also disturbed that the Head of the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission and his delegation came under fire in Pooneryn in the north of Sri Lanka the same day.”

The US urged government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers “to honor their commitment to abide by the cease fire, end all hostilities immediately, and return to negotiations to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.”

Canada condemned the attack and echoed the call for the violence to end for talks.

“This incident demonstrates once again the heavy price paid by civilians caught in this long-standing conflict,” said Foreign Minister Peter MacKay.

Reacting soon after the attack Wednesday, Amnesty International said it “is appalled that the military should attack a camp for displaced people - these were civilians who had already been forced from their homes because of the conflict.”

“[We] condemn all attacks on civilians and is particularly saddened and shocked to see such a large-scale attack on civilians' just days after the government's announcement of its Commission of Inquiry into human rights abuses”

The ICRC, which escorted badly wounded survivors to hospitals, said it “deplored the tragic loss of life and the injury to civilians resulting from the shelling, of the densely populated area of Kathiraveli, a coastal hamlet north of Vakarai.”

An ICRC convoy of six ambulances, a bus, a truck and three cars reached the hospital in LTTE-controlled Vakarai, to which the dead and the wounded had been brought.

The ICRC transferred 69 serious cases to Valiaichchenai hospital, a better equipped facility in the government-controlled area. A second ICRC convoy returned to the area today to deliver aid to civilians there.

Operation USA, a large American NGO, says it is “collecting funds and pushing the US Government and the UN to take firm action to help re-open humanitarian corridors” in Sri Lanka. Demanding access to internally displaced people (IDPs), the NGO said “a contributing factor to the current tension between the Sinhalese and Tamils is the inequitable distribution of tsunami relief aid by the Government of Sri Lanka.”

“There is an immediate need for food, nutritional supplements, medication, relief supplies, and funds to support the growing refugee population in the NorthEast,” Operation USA said.

“Despite our advocacy efforts … this aid is not reaching the refugees. This is because the Government of Sri Lanka is not allowing humanitarian access to affected regions,” the NGO said.

“At present, 600,000 people in the Jaffna peninsula do not have access to food and medication due to the closure of a key access road.”

“43,000 civilians (9,000 families) from the tsunami-affected regions of Muttur, Sampur, Eechalampattai, and Trincomalee Districts are currently in Vaharai, with minimal access to the region for humanitarian relief.”

Operation USA cited wider discrimination against Tamils by the Sri Lankan government.

“A recent survey found that in the predominately Sinhalese south, 75% of temporary shelters have been dismantled and the families moved into permanent housing,” the NGO said.

“In contrast, only 25 % of the population in the Northeast have been relocated to permanent housing, leaving 77% in deteriorating temporary shelters,”

Operation USA last week appealed for people to come forward with “medical supplies or nutritional supplements, are interested in sponsoring children in our Schools and Orphanage program, or are looking for ways to assist the tsunami-affected populations in Sri Lanka who have also recently been displaced by political violence.”

It demanded access “enabling our partners on the ground to provide goods and services to the affected IDP and to ensure the safety of tsunami development programs.”

India is training a third batch of six Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) personnel at Chandigarh, Punjab to support Colombo’s plans to expand its jet bomber fleet, the Times of India reported this week.

Sri Lanka plans to purchase four more jet bombers from Russia and, in preparation, SLAF personnel are being put through three months of instruction.

The latest group began training on October 14, despite outrage in Tamil Nadu over the targeting of civilians by SLAF bombers in which over a hundred people have been killed this year.

"We are a group of six and are undergoing electrical first line course for MiG-27s here," SLAF Sergeant Perera told the paper in at Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab.

They started their training programme on October 14 and would end on January 5, 2007, he and another sergeant Srigunasinghe said, adding that theirs was the third batch from Sri Lanka to receive training here.
Another Sri Lankan trainee Ariyadasa said Colombo was going to purchase four aircrafts from Russia and this course would come handy for them.

Srigunasinghe said a batch from their country had received training in basic concepts from Pakistani Air Force in 1999-2000.

Air Marshal A K Singh, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of western air command, who was on an inspection visit here, also interacted with these personnel and inquired about their training programme, the Times of India said.

About the technical type training (tettra) school in Chandigarh, Station Commander, Group Captain B K Sood said it had turned out to be a premier training base for MiG-27 and MiG-29 in the last one year.

On August 14, SLAF jets bombed the Sencholai children’s home in Vallipunam, killing 55 people (51 schoolgirls and four staff) and wounding over 150 wounded.

The bombing sparked condemnation by Tamil Nadu leaders. Chief Minister M Karunanidhi denounced it as an "atrocious and inhumane act" while the Legislative Assembly passed a resolution condemning it.

In the wake of the Sencholai airstrike A former counter-terrorism chief of India’s External intelligence, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), also criticized the targeting of civilians by Sri Lanka’s Air Force.

“The Sri Lankan Government's counter-insurgency operations are becoming increasingly ruthless,” Mr. B Raman said in a report.

“There have been many instances of targeted killing of innocent civilians through actions on the ground as well as from the air.”

“This will only drive more Tamils into the arms of the LTTE,” Raman, who served as additional secretary at the RAW for more than a decade, said.

“Since President Mahinda Rajapakse took over as the President in November last year, more innocent civilians have been killed by the Sri Lankan security forces than in the [recent] past.”

Six TNA MPs and candidates have been killed by military intelligence and associated paramilitaries since the 2002 ceasefire was signed. They are:

1. A Chandra Nehru, former MP for Amparai, shot and killed on 23 Feb 2005, while travelling from Kilinochchi to Batticaloa near Batticaloa.

2. Joseph Pararajasingam, MP for Batticaloa, shot and killed on 24 December 2005, in a church in Batticaloa town.

3. Vanniasingam Vigneswaran, selected by TNA to replace Joseph Pararajasingam, shot and killed on 7 April 2006, on his way to work in Trincomalee.

4. Arumugam Senthilnathan, a list candidate in the TNA list, shot and killed on 26 April 2006, in his shop in Vavuniya.

5. Sinnathamby Sivamaharasa, a former TNA MP, shot and killed on 21 August 2006, near his home in Jaffna.

6. Nadaraja Raviraj, TNA MP for Jaffna, shot and killed on 8 Nov 2006, in Narahenpitiya in Colombo.

Tamil National Alliance members murdered in the past year.

LTTE leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan’s statement conferring the LTTE’s highest civilian award.

A great soul who carried the ideal of the liberation of our homeland as a burning flame in his heart has been made a victim of the Sinhala oppression. The shock waves created by this tragic news has descended into the depth of our hearts like an earthquake. It has shaken the soul of our nation. It has heaped further grief on a people facing death and destruction at the hands of Sinhala oppression on a daily basis.

Mr Nadaraja Raviraj was a great man. He possessed rare characteristics. He was not one to be pushed and pulled for personal gains. He had a deep affection for the Tamil homeland and its people.

He was an exceptional politician. He understood law and justice in its true sense. He possessed a progressive spirit and a desire to follow novel approaches. He was brave and he possessed a purity of heart. His youthful energy with all of the above stole the hearts of all who came in contact with him.

His clarity and level of consciousness about the freedom struggle was born by observing the tragic living conditions of the Tamil people. This awareness inevitably pushed him on the path of freedom struggle. Along this path he whole-heartedly accepted the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and their goals and served the nation. He contributed on several fronts in this freedom struggle.

As a parliamentarian he worked tirelessly for the Tamil nation. He spoke loudly to the world about the Sinhala Buddhist chauvinistic state terror. He shattered the false propaganda of the Sinhala state infusing his arguments with his legal expertise. He stood firm and fought injustice in the face of threats from paramilitary violence.

In recognition of Mr Nadaraja Raviraj’s love of freedom, his patriotism and his services to our freedom struggle, I am proud to bestow the title of Mamanithar on him. Death never destroys the great souls who lived their life for truth. They will live forever in our nation’s soul as heroes of our history.

 

Sri Lanka’s largest Tamil party and the country’s main opposition blamed the military for the assassination of one its parliamentarians last week, saying the killing was intended to terrorise and silence criticism of President Mahinda Rajapakse’s rightwing administration.

Nadaraja Raviraj, a member of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and a human rights lawyer, was shot at close range by unidentified gunman on a motorbike at around 8.30am last Friday as he got into his car after giving a TV interview.

The MP died later in hospital. His bodyguard was also killed.

President Mahinda Rajapakse immediately condemned the shooting, calling it a "cowardly and heinous act" by "those opposed to dissent and political pluralism in a democratic society".

However, the TNA was quick to blame the government for the brazen killing by gunmen who coolly departed the scene in the capitol, Colombo.

The gunmen got away after stopping traffic in front of a military installation, without fear of being arrested.

"It is government forces or forces aligned to the government, there can be no question," TNA leader R Sampanthan told Reuters.

"This is an attempt to stifle... and silence those who can justifiably espouse the Tamil cause."

"We understand that a whole magazine has been emptied on them in broad daylight. This is a clear message to Tamil parliamentarians ... don't open your mouth," Suresh Premachandran, another MP for the TNA, told reporters.

"A democratic voice of Tamils has been silenced," Selvam Adaikalanathan, another fellow party member, told Tamilnet.

"He had a convincing way of dealing with even the crude bureaucracy of this failed state. He fought from their platform. His voice in the Sri Lankan parliament, and in south, where injustice and oppression originate, was much feared."

The Tamil Tigers conferred their highest civilian honour Saturday on Mr. Raviraj.

The LTTE leader, Velupillai Pirapaharan bestowed the title of "Mamanithar," or great man, on Raviraj, who on the day before petitioned the United Nations to intervene and protect civilians against violence by the armed forces.

The United States led international criticism of the government, but stopped short of condemning the killing.

“The United States deplores the assassination on November 10 of Mr Nadarajah Raviraj, member of the Sri Lankan Parliament,” a US embassy statement said.

“We express our deepest sympathy for this loss to the family of Mr.Raviraj, to his parliamentary colleagues and the people of Sri Lanka who have been unjustly robbed of his energy and talent.”

“It is critical that crimes such as the murder of Nadarajah Raviraj not go unpunished. We urge the government to begin an immediate investigation into the circumstances of his killing and to find, arrest and prosecute those responsible on the most urgent basis,” the US said.

The Federation of All Mosques and Organizations in Eastern Province (FAMOEP), in a statement Saturday, expressed its deep sorrow over the killing of Mr. Raviraj.

"Muslims of North East revere Raviraj as a Tamil leader who had given an important place in his heart for the well-being of Muslims," it said.

“He worked tirelessly for the liberation of Tamil speaking people in the North East and also vehemently advocated the unity of Tamils and Muslims. He openly expressed regret for the suffering the Muslim people had undergone in the North East during war period.”

The main opposition United National Party (UNP) said the government must accept responsibility for the killing - the second of a TNA legislator in a year - and ensure the killers were brought to justice.

“Within a year of parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingham’s assassination, Raviraj has been killed. This is a threat to democracy. We strongly condemn this cowardly act and urge the government to take legal actions to bring the killers to justice besides providing adequate security measures to Tamil parliamentarians,” UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said.

UNP national organiser S.B. Dissanayake blamed the government for the killing, saying it could not get away by blaming paramilitaries or any other organisation.

Mr. Raviraj, who spoke Tamil, Sinhala and English, had often been called on to articulate the Tamil perspective in Sinhala electronic media.

"He clearly explained to the Sinhala people in Sinhala why the Tamils are oppressed because they are Tamils," Gnanasiri Kotthigoda, editor of the Haraya newspaper said.

Mr Raviraj, 44, elected twice as mayor of Jaffna in the Tamil heartland, was an outspoken parliamentarian, voicing objections to extra-judicial killings and civilian abductions, and a leading campaigner for Tamil self-rule.

On Thursday, the father-of-two had taken part in a demonstration against the Sri Lankan Army's shelling near a school in the north-eastern town of Vaharai which killed at least 50 Tamil civilians. The military onslaught in the region has displaced over 40,000 Tamil people.

Thousands of people of all ethnicities protested Monday against Mr. Raviraj’s killing at a demonstration organised by anti-war peace groups.

The MP’s casket was carried on shoulders of protestors.

A call for hartal (general shut down) protest brought in Tamil parts of the country to a standstill.

The TNA said a request for Mr. Raviraj’s cortege to travel to the northern peninsula of Jaffna by road was turned down by the government.

Defence officials confirmed the request was rejected, but said they offered air transport to Jaffna.

TNA leader Sampanthan said the party was making other arrangements to charter a private plane and hold the funeral at his home constituency of Chavakachcheri in Jaffna.

A spokeswoman for the international truce monitors in Sri Lanka, Helen Olafsdottir, told the BBC that there seemed to be total impunity regarding assassinations in Sri Lanka, which she said occurred everyday.

"We are fast becoming a country of widows," said Nimalka Fernando, a leading human rights activist at Monday’s protest said. "These killers and the mighty terror of the state are making us a killing field."

"We cannot allow this country to be ruled in this manner," she said. "It is the culture of impunity that must stop."