SLA victimizes released ex-Liberation Tiger combatants in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 November 2010, 05:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officers and intelligence wing men threaten the owners of the shops and other places which had given employment to the ex-Liberation Tiger combatants released after arrest and rehabilitation not to employ them, sources in Jaffna said. Many of them, intimidated by SLA are sending away the ex-Tiger combatants who have no other means to earn their living. Meanwhile, the families which had come from Vanni and settled in Jaffna peninsula complain that they are under the strict observation of the SLA. The young men and women who had been employed in civil sector of the Liberation Tigers too are victimized in this manner by the SLA and its intelligence wing men, the sources added.

Meanwhile, some of the released ex-Liberation Tiger combatants are directed to present themselves at the local SLA camps daily or weekly to sign the register.

The released ex-Liberation Tigers who have none to support them face starvation being dismissed from jobs they had managed to secure with much difficulty.

Last week, the parents of a former Liberation Tiger combatant who had been rehabilitated after arrest and later released to join his family complained 18 November to Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC) office that their son is continually threatened by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Intelligence Unit officers and men when he appears to sign at the SLA Intelligence Unit camp as instructed.

Amidst many accusations that the former Liberation tiger combatants released after rehabilitation are intimidated and at times attacked in the SLA Intelligence Wing camps in Achchezhu and Oorezhu in Jaffna, this complaint has been made against the SLA men to the HRC publicly, sources in Jaffna said.