Abductions force families to flee Thiriyaai village

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 May 2007, 10:37 GMT]
Large number of resettled families in Thiriyaai, a traditional Tamil village in the Trincomalee, have fled to safer areas due to frequent abductions and disappearance since October last year. About fourteen members from resettled families are said to have been abducted or disappeared since the outbreak of fresh violence last year, according to reports submitted to the International Committee of Red Cross and Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) by civil groups.

At least four Tamil civilians reported to have been abducted or disappeared from the village in May. Since then several resettled families have left Thiriyaai village, reports say.

Thiriyaai is located about 42 km north of Trincomalee town along Trincomalee-Thennamaravaady highway in Trincomalee district.

All 86 Tamil families resettled in Kallampaththai, one of the suburbs in the village in December last year have fled leaving their newly built houses constructed by a non-governmental organisation under resettlement project.

Each house was constructed at a cost of nearly six hundred thousand rupees, sources said.

Of the 190 families resettled at Kattukulam, 140 families have left. Only about fifty families are now residing. 385 families lived in Kattukulam before 1990. About 242 families were resettled in the proper Thiriyaai village. Currently only 62 families remain in the village.

Resettlement program commenced in this village since the signing of the ceasefire agreement between then government in power in the year 2002 and the LTTE.

The names of persons reported abducted or disappeared since October last year are:

• Pararajasingham Kirubakaran (37),
• Suntharalingam Selvakumar (19),
• Rasu Sasikumar (19),
• Kandiah Palendra (41),
• Krishnapillai Paramasivam (53),
• Arunasalam Velautham (72),
• Kanagasooriyan Piraruban (14),
• Rasiah Tharmarajah (41),
• Velautham Santhirapose (43),
• Santhirapose Parvathi (26),
• S.Niyas (33),
• Sellathurai Vijeyan (30),
• Selvanathan Karthik (24), and
• Sunthararajah Arulkumaran (26).

The body of Pararajasingham Kirubakaran, one of the abducted persons was found dead few days after his disappearance. The fate of others is not known, reports further said.