LTTE urges Norway to initiate steps to restore normalcy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 December 2005, 06:15 GMT]
Noting that the Tamil people have been highly pertubed over the brutal rape and the murder of Tharshini Ilayathamby in Punguduthivu, and the military-unleashed violence on the peaceful demonstration where the Vice Chancellor of the Jaffna Univeristy was attacked and a lecturer was shot, has created "tension, panic and uncontrollable civilian unrest," the Political Head of the Liberation Tigers, Mr. S.P.Thamilchelvan has called for meaningful steps on the part of the Norwegian facilitators and the International Community in a letter addressed to the Norwegian Ambassador, Mr. Hans Brattskar on Wednesday.

"The international community has a moral obligation to prevail upon the government to pull back its forces into the barracks and bring about normalcy in the life of the peace loving people," the LTTE Political Head has told the Norwegian Ambassador.

Full text of the letter follows:

December 21, 2005

Mr. Hans Bratskar
H.E.The Ambassador for Norway

Your Excellency,

Subject: Escalating Military violence in Jaffna

This memorandum is being addressed to you at this difficult time taking into consideration the grave situation that is escalating in the Jaffna peninsula.

Violent incidents unfolding in the Tamil homeland since of late testify to intensified attacks on civilians by the military. Climaxing this situation is the incident in which a young lady has been abducted, sexually molested by many according to the medical evidence and testified as having been subject to this brutality by the SL Navy personnel in the High Security Zone in the island region. To cover up this crime the lady has been murdered and the body put into a well immersed deep with a stone attached. This has made the collective Tamil emotions run high with the recalling of the Krishanthy murder in Chemmani. As a nation of people who have serious reservations about the security of females, the Tamil people are highly perturbed over this criminal trespass into the psyche of the Tamil thinking. This cruel pattern during the height of war under military occupation was seen as a crime against a selected nation of people by human rights activists then. At a time the Tamil people are crying for normalcy that had been denied to them even during a cease fire period, military excesses and atrocities of this nature has created a sense of fury in their minds.

As a planned continuation, the military has accelerated its pace of harassment and attacks on civilian population. The military has adopted the most indecent pattern of attacking selectively many of the Tamil academics and the education community at large. This, for a people who consider education as the highest and noble goal in life, is a serious blow. In this context, the attack on the Vice Chancellor of the Jaffna University Dr.S.Mohanadas and the shooting and injuring of professors, lecturers and undergraduates, has created tension, panic and uncontrollable civilian unrest. The SL Military is solely responsible for this sorry state of affairs. We request of you in all earnestness that your effective intervention and pressure to the government must be in place now at this perilous hour to stop forthwith the military violence and atrocities on the civilians. We fear that the military expanding its nefarious activities to public thoroughfares, educational institutions, densely populated residential areas and public places where people congregate would unfortunately lead to serious consequences. Military should stop all its atrocities against the civilians forthwith and help to pacify the people.

At this critical juncture when the Tamil people are in the fringe of their patience and subject to military violence let loose on them, the international community has a moral obligation to prevail upon the government to pull back its forces into the barracks and bring about normalcy in the life of the peace loving people.

Please treat this as a serious threat to the CFA and initiate meaningful steps to bring about calm and peace in the Tamil homeland.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely

S.P.Tamilselvan
Head of the Political Wing,
LTTE