EU team meets military governor, finds no time for civil groups in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 February 2011, 15:13 GMT]
The parents and relatives of abducted and ‘missing’ youth in Jaffna were thoroughly disappointed, as the visiting European Union team could not find time to meet their representatives or receive petitions from them. They were further frustrated by the act of the team choosing to meet on Thursday the SL colonial governor in Jaffna Maj. Gen. Chandrasri, who is accused of many abductions and disappearances when he was commanding the SL military in Jaffna. The EU team that showed much keenness in its ‘aid’ related investments and in knowing the ways the SL colonial administration functions in Jaffna, by its gesture, signals assent to the SL military rule of Eezham Tamils, civil groups said. Conceding synthesis of occupying military and civil service, a high official in Jaffna told the team that the military are also ‘government servants’.

Thousands of young men and women ‘disappeared’ in Jaffna alone, ever since the SL military occupied the peninsula in the 1990s. So far nothing is known about them.

Over several years, parents and family members live with untold anxiety.

The Sri Lankan state is of no use in delivering justice. Its occupying military in Jaffna refuses to meet parents and relatives of the disappeared.

Representatives of parents and relatives look upon international justice and they wanted to use the opportunity of the visit of the EU team to present their case.

Several hundreds were abducted by the occupying military and disappeared when Maj. Gen. Chandrasri was commanding the military in Jaffna. He was directing the Army intelligence unit operating from the Palaali base that was engaged in the crimes. Chandrasri is now the colonial governor, but he is a war criminal, civil groups in Jaffna said.

Certain symbolic acts of some establishments of the so-called international community, signalling ‘subjugation to the end’ angers Eezham Tamils beyond limits, the civil groups further said.