220 Tamils arrested in SLA combing in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2012, 17:53 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army and Police, backed by special teams of the ‘Terrorist Investigation Department’ from Colombo, have been entering selected houses in the villages of Trincomalee district, detaining ex-LTTE members since Saturday evening. The SL forces have detained around 220 Tamil males and females from their houses. The detained men have been taken to Welikande and the females have been taken to Poonthoaddam in Vavuniyaa, informed sources told TamilNet Wednesday. Ex-LTTE members who had left the movement more than 10 years ago have also been detained. The arrested also include returnees from Tamil Nadu and those who have been detained earlier and released for reunification with their families. While India and the West talk only about the North nowadays, the operations of genocidal Colombo in the East largely go unnoticed.

The SL Police said 160 persons have been detained, but civil sources said at least 220 persons have been taken from their houses in Cheanapuram, Ki'liveddi welfare centre, Paddimeadu, Kumpu'rup-piddi, Thampalakaamam, Anpu-vazhi-puram, Paalaiyoottu, Nilaave'li, Panku'lam and Eechchilam-pattu. The search operations have been going on during nights.

The ‘arrested’ men have been sent to Sevanapitya SLA camp in Welikanda and the women have been sent to Vavuniyaa Poonthoaddam camp, police officials said.

In the meantime, the SL police sources in Trincomalee said they had received strict orders from Colombo to nab former LTTE members and send them off to ‘rehabilitation programme’.

Anyone who have ‘failed’ to go through the SL government ‘rehabilitation programme’ would be sent to welfare centres and would be registered as former cadres of LTTE, the SL police sources further said. But, the civil sources said the members who have earlier undergone such programmes have also been detained once again. Only some of the families have received, ‘confirming’ the detention of their family members. Even such papers are said to be ‘unofficial’ and cannot be used in legal context, according to the affected families.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan officials in Colombo have recently gone on record saying that if they were to adhere to the LLRC recommendations, they would have to again detain all the former LTTE members and subject them to ‘rehabilitation programmes’.

Tamil politicians in the East blame the international community for not voicing for the rights of the Tamil people.

India and the West purposefully exclude the East in order to divide the country of Eezham Tamils and are engaged in a campaign that return of normalcy and ‘civilian rule’ are problems only of the North, they said.