State orchestrated violence raises spectre of 1983 pogrom- TNA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 April 2006, 01:26 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary group in a scathing press release issued Friday accused the Sri Lanka Government of unleashing "State Terror" on Tamil speaking people with the intention of "ethnically cleansing" the Tamil dominated Trincomalee town

Full text of the press release follows:

The Parliamentary Group of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) urgently met today in Colombo to consider the grave situation prevailing in the Northeast, and especially in the Trincomalee District.

Despite the agreement reached at Geneva between the GOSL and the LTTE regarding the need to disarm the paramilitary groups functioning with the GOSL armed forces, no action whatsoever has been taken in this regard up to date. Instead many Tamil civilians residing in the Northeast, including Mr.V.Vigneswaran, the chairman of the Trincomalee Tamil People’s Forum, have been ruthlessly killed by these paramilitary groups. That the GOSL’s Military Intelligence is also involved with these paramilitary groups in well known. The continuing violent incidents of this nature are the cause for the present tense situation.

Like the July 1983 genocidal pogrom against the Tamils, the current violence against the Tamil speaking people has been unleashed in Trincomalee with the connivance of the SL Navy. The SL Navy had brought Sinhalese mobs by the truck loads to the heart of the Trincomalee Town, who in turn began murdering, and causing grievous hurt to Tamil speaking people, whilst setting on fire and destroying Tamil commercial centres. That the SL navy orchestrated these incidents is clear. We wish to point out, that the Jaffna District TNA Parliamentarian Hon.N.Raviraj was severely attacked and his vehicle badly damaged by Sinhala mobs at Abeyapura in Trincomalee at about 5.30pm in the presence of the SL Navy officers on 11/04/2006. The TNA condemns in the strongest possible terms these types of State Terror that is being unleashed on the Tamil speaking people.

The TNA considers that these continuous acts of State Terror are being unleashed on the Tamil speaking people, with the specific objective of terrorizing the Tamil speaking people into fleeing the Trincomalee District with the intention of ethnically cleansing the District of Tamils.

We fear that these incidents orchestrated by the government will have serious repercussion for the upcoming Geneva talks. We call upon the International Community to strongly condemn these acts of State Terror against the Tamil speaking people. Further, the TNA urges the GOSL to take immediate steps to desist from such acts.

The TNA wishes to express its deepest condolences to the victims’ families and prays for the speedy recovery of all the injured.

MAVAI S. SENATHIRAJAH M.P.
(On behalf of the TNA Parliamentary Group)