Tamil Civilians Continue to Live in Fear

by Esan Satkunarajah, February 26, 2007

Ms. Louise Arbour
High Commissioner for Human Rights
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations Office at Geneva
1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

Dear Madam Louise Arbour,

Re: Tamil civilians continue to live in fear as disappearances and abductions increase

Two fifteen year old students, Poovathasan Yaseetharan and his friend Kunasekaralingam Sivaroopan, both from 15 Mile Post Udupiddy in Vadamaradchy, Jaffna, disappeared yesterday on the way to attend a private tuition [tutoring session].

There have been numerous abductions, disappearances and extra-judicial killings of Tamil civilians in the NorthEast of Sri Lanka taking place in recent times and the number is increasing on a daily basis. The steady increase in these crimes is being ignored by both the Sri Lankan governement and the international community at large.

In many of abductions and disappearances cases, bodies were found decapitated by the abductors and thrown in public places to instill fear into the general Tamil civilians’ minds and terrorise them into submission.

The helpless feeling of the total Tamil population in the northeast of Sri Lanka is made worse by other forms of gross violations of their human rights, such as killing, bombing, and starving them, along with aerial attacks on schools and religious places by the state armed forces and its paramilitary proxies. In this connection, please note the statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission.

We call on the international community to protect the human rights of Tamil civilians by taking decisive actions against the current Sri Lankan government without further delay.

Yours sincerely,

Esan Satkunarajah
Association for Prevention of State Terrorism (APST)