Friday, April 28, 2006

Why is the Army Killing Auto Drivers?
Really, why is the Army and Military Intelligence killing auto-rickshaw (three-wheeler) drivers in Jaffna? Do they charge too much for an auto ride? They have killed four so far with the one in Kayts today.

Sources in military intelligence in the peninsula say that the auto drivers are messengers for the LTTE and they are being targeted to put a hole in the LTTE's communications network in the Peninsula. But military intelligence admits that these guys are not LTTE members, just civilians who have been pressured and coerced to do the LTTE's bidding. If these guys don't do what the LTTE asks them to do, then the LTTE is probably going to burn their house down and kill their family. Would anyone really gamble with those things at stake?

Therefore, is their arbitrary execution acceptable?

If military intelligence has proof that these auto drivers are LTTE messengers then arrest them and put them on trail. That's what 'civilized' security and law enforcemen agencies do. But no, particularly in the Jaffna peninsula, the police, military and military intelligence have shown that justice is something that only Sinhala people have a right to. For the Tamils, well, a beating or a bullet in the head will have to do.

All those who talk about the LTTE's murder of civilians, I ask you to think for a moment about what the Army is doing in Jaffna. I'm not saying the LTTE is right to kill civilians, or that violence justifies more violence. I'm only saying that the Army don't have a squeaky clean rap sheet either. Infact their reputation in the North and East has been worse in terms of the disregard for human life than the LTTE.

And each single time the Army executes someone in the peninsula, they create enemies for themselves. By engaging in such activities they are feeding the LTTE and furthering it's cause.

posted by Morquendi @  10:07 PM   || 5 opinion/s ||
Comments:
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : April 30, 2006 10:41 PM
 
Please place forward the EVIDENCE that the army is involved

Thanks.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : May 01, 2006 10:26 AM
 
The auto drivers are killed because they are exposed. They are the ones standing most of the time on the street. Even during the '83 holocaust, most of those killed in Jaffna were Taxi drivers!
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : May 02, 2006 9:19 AM
 
Before Vigneshwaran’s death, the Tigers had on and off killed 28 Sinhala civilians. The killing spree began in December 2005 with the aim of instigating communal clashes - sooner than the Wanni gangsters had earlier planned. It followed the serious setback that Prabhakaran and company suffered when Karuna Amman’s cadres launched an unexpected attack on the LTTE safe house at Selvanayagampuram state farm on July 9, 2005, according to two Divaina Journalists Janaka Liyanarachchi and Krishanthan of Trincomalee who probed the background to the murders. Karuna’s attack had deprived the LTTE of their hold on the town where hardly a fraction of the expected crowd attended the last Tiger-sponsored Pongu Thamil celebrations.

Around this time the Eastern Sinhala Organization, which had the Trincomalee fish market as its base, was actively involved in the controversy over the Buddha statue in the vicinity of the market Leading activists in the organization were fish vendors and three-wheeler taxi drivers.

The Wanni Tigers never expected this development and saw their plans going haywire. They were at the time in the process of forming differently named armed units centered around the Trinco suburbs such Pannambar, Thirankadaloor, Pallakottam, Selvanayagampuram, Anbuwelipuram, Palauththulinganagar, Orrs Hill and Sivam Kovil. At least 15 persons were being recruited to each of the units from each village with the hope of unleashing a massive final attack. But the lack of real public support for their goals had compelled the Wanni Tigers to bring forward the last item in their agenda. It was the plot to disrupt ethnic harmony in the town and cripple the activities of the town’s leading Sinhalese before driving away other Sinhala residents from the Trinco Municipal limits.

The LTTE pistol gang’s killing spree commenced with the murder on October 18, 2005 of W.A.P. Anura (28) – a young activist of the Eastern Sinhala Organization and a popular figure among both the Sinhalas and Tamils. The victim was a three driver who operated from Marathadi junction in Trinco. He was killed after two women lured him into the Orrs Hill area on the pretext of hiring his three-wheeler to go to the spot.

By this time the Prabhakaran’s gunmen had issued death warrants to all of the Sinhala Organization activists. The organization’s Advisor and Chief Incumbent of the China Bay Vihara, the Venerable Dehiowita Piyatissa was compelled to leave Sri Lanka in the face of Tiger threats.

Among the next to die was Rupasingha Arachchilage Hemapala alias Baby Mahaththaya (56) a strong UNP supporter and a well-known businessman who was more popular among Tamils than Sinhalese. He ran his commercial establishment at Mattikeli Junction on the Trincomalee-Kandy Road. Having lived in Trincomalee for over 50 years, he was one of the few Sinhalas who remained in the area when most others fled the place, during the communal violence that erupted soon after the arrival of the Indian Peace Keeping Forces in 1987.

Hemapala’s death shocked both Sinhala and Tamil residents alike. Two weeks later on December 3, K.B. Hemasiri alias Lokka Aiyya (49) was shot dead. He grew up in Trinco since he was 13 years of age and owned a fish stall in Trinco. He was killed right at the spot where he was doing business. The next murder at Alleswatte Junction on December 11 was of EPDP member David Michael after the LTTE branded him a Tamil traitor. Four days later another Tamil, Suresh, who was a home guard was gunned down. Many Tamil civilians were very depressed over these two murders.

On December 19 H.M. Chandradasa, a businessman and a father of six, residing at Lenin Mawatha, Abhayapura Trincomalee was killed. He had been in the vegetable business for over a quarter century at Anuradhapura Junction at Trinco. Chandradasa was killed when he was having his meals in Ansar Hotel at Anuradhapura junction. It was a most despicable in the eyes of the majority of Sinhalese since they do not normally kill even an animal when it is eating. Following his death two of the four Sinhala families residing at Anuradhapura junction fled the area. The other two were also warned to leave the place.

The day before Christmas – on Dec. 25, 2005 – LTTE murdered Albert Weerakkody, another prominent Sinhala businessman and popular figure in Trincomalee. He was well liked by Sinhalase, Tamils and Muslims in the area, having lived in the district for nearly 50 years. He too, like Baby Mahattaya did not flee the area in 1987 even after bombs were thrown at his house. Even after he was shot at in 1990 and stoned he continued to reside in Orrs Hill area, which originally had nearly a 100 Sinhala families. But LTTE threats reduced that number to about six.

The next LTTE victim was an Army Sergeant W. Sunil who was gunned down inside his home on December 27. His family was among the handful of Sinhala families that were living in the Tamil village of Sangam. After his death not a single Sinhala family is left in Sangam.

On April 12, the day after Vigneshwaran’s funeral a bicycle bomb went off in the Trincomalee market crowded with Sinhala New Year shoppers. People were blown to bits. One little girl was dead clutching a doll and a new pair of shoes, which had been given to her as New Year presents. More bombs exploded went off in the area on April 13 and 14 on New Year’s Day. But there were no festivities since the people were in no mood to celebrate. One of the bombs targeted the security forces at Alleswatte.

But the straw that broke the camel’s back came on April 14. It was abduction and murder of a Sinhala youth, B.H. Isanka (19) who was running a bakery with his father in the village of Mihindapura. He used to purchase the stuff needed for the bakery from a shop in the neighbouring village of Ambawelipuram. He felt no Sinhala Tamil differences. The bread he baked was sold in the Tamil villages and his fiancée was a Tamil girl. On New Year’s Day, his body was found blindfolded and shot in the head before being before being dumped in the Thorankaabu lagoon.

Enraged mobs ands criminal elements in Mihindupura went on the rampage, unleashing bloody violence of a sort that was not witnessed even in July 1983. Over 50 Tamil houses were destroyed. One woman was burnt to death inside a house that was set on fire. Many displaced Tamil civilians ended up in refugee camps while the Tigers forced even those not affected by the violence e to go to camps.

Soon afterwards Sinhala families in Mihindupura, Andamkulam, Sinhapura, Sangama and Fifth Mile Post fled the areas and went beyond Habarana, thus paving once again the way to mutual suspicion and hatred between the two communities.

The Wanni gangsters are no doubt jubilant.
# posted by Blogger Just Mal : May 05, 2006 1:37 AM
 
Sar - thanks for the statistics. Plagiarism without credit is a very naughty thing to do.

The army/undercover forces/paramilitaries could very well be involved and the auto drivers could easily be informants of the LTTE.

Neither is unlikely. What's the big deal here?
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : February 07, 2007 9:03 AM
 
Mahinda is to blame... He's the worst president since independence.... No person with a brain can stand him
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