Kandapola killings create suspicions on UPFA’s complicity - EPRLF

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 April 2004, 15:48 GMT]
“The ethnic violence directed against the Tamil people in Kandapola, in the Nuwara Eliya district, by thugs and Sri Lanka Police resulting in the killing of Tamils, has created suspicions in the minds of the Tamil people that the violence was instigated and by the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government of Sri Lanka, in retaliation for its failure to win the support of the major Tamil parties in the election of the Speaker," charged Mr. S. Premachandran, the Secretary General of the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF-Suresh Wing) Thursday.

Mr. Premachandran is a Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian from the Jaffna district. His statement was carried by the Jaffna-based Tamil language daily, Uthayan, Friday.

Reports from the hill country say that in the riots on Wednesday night, two Tamils were shot dead by the police in Kandapola, and a third was admitted to hospital in a critical condition. In addition, 9 Tamils were wounded, 4 of them severely, by Police firing.

The area is still under a night curfew and ethnic tension runs high, sources said.

The EPRLF (Suresh)'s statement continued:

“The Police, supposed to bring the riot under control, only managed to wound and kill Tamil people, while allowing the thugs, who entered the homes of the Tamils and terrorized them, to escape without any difficulty. Even in 1977, immediately after the election, the Sri Lanka Police and the Army aided and abetted the thugs in the South who attacked innocent Tamil people. Similarly, in Kandapola, instead of controlling the thugs from within the Sinhalese communities, the Police killed innocent Tamils. This clearly shows that the thugs were aided and abetted by the Police.

“If the Government of Sri Lanka and the President cannot guarantee the security of the Tamil people, they should make it public, so that Tamils can seek the assistance of the international community in protecting themselves.

“If the UPFA government thinks that by unleashing Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism and thugs against the Tamil people, the people will be frightened into submission and surrender, it should realize the error of it ways.

“If the UPFA really wants a peaceful country without any war, it should put a stop to such thuggery. The government should provide adequate compensation to the wounded people and the families of those killed, and publicly apologize to the Tamils of the country.”