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With reference to our Urgent Action - Ref No. AE/02/01 of 5 January 2000, we would like to bring the following matters to the concern of all human rights organisations, human rights activists and persons committed to promoting values of human dignity and worth. Our observations on information that TCHR has received since the assassination of the human rights defender Mr. Kumar Ponnambalam, strongly indicate that a serious cover-up and manipulation by the investigators are taking place. So far, no proper and serious inquiry has been carried out regarding this assassination! We would like to draw your attention to the press release of the Tamil Information Centre (TIC), in London, dated January 06, 2000. This states that "The Tamil Information Centre understands that Police Officers who came to the scene of the killing of Ramesh Nadarajah (Editor of a weekly Tamil news paper) had told concerned MPs that they would not spend time in investigating the case as it was not done by the LTTE and that they have no interest in the case!" When a crime is reported in Sri Lanka it is the local police in whose jurisdiction the incident occurred that investigates along with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). In the case of Mr Ponnambalam's assassination, it is the Wellawatte police along with the CID that ought to be investigating the crime. However, on the 3rd day after the murder, this case was handed over to the Colombo Detective Bureau (CDB) on the instruction of the President and the Inspector General of Police. This is highly irregular. Even though the person named "Shantha", referred to in our previous Urgent Action had come to the family home, had sat and spoken with Mr Ponnambalam before going in the car with him, and even though the CID had been informed of this, no attempt was made to find out where he sat in the house, which chair he sat on, or to take finger-prints anywhere in Mr Ponnambalam's home. According to a human rights lawyer and a good friend of Mr. Kumar Ponnambalam, there was an eyewitness to this assassination! He is Mr. "X", a businessman in Colombo. Mr "X" had gone in a trishaw to Ramakrishna Terrace via Marine Drive and Ramakrishna road. As the trishaw turned into Ramakrishna Road he had seen a jet-black Isuzu Trooper jeep with dark tinted windows parked at the bottom of Ramakrishna Road. He had proceeded up the Road and turned into Ramakrishna Terrace where he had seen Mr Ponnambalam's car parked on one side to the left. He had noted a man seated in the left-hand front seat of the car and another man standing outside the window closest to Mr Ponammbalam. He had driven past them and had got off opposite No. 7 Ramakrishna Terrace and had rung the bell/knocked on the gate. There had been no reply from the house. At that point he heard what he described as firecrackers. He had not taken special note of this, as it was the festive season. Since there was still no response from the house he had turned to go back towards Ramakrishna Road when he saw the individual standing outside the window where Mr Ponnambalam was seated, tuck a gun that seemed like a revolver /pistol into his waist and pull the shirt over it. The other man had got out of the car by this time and they were both "casually" walking towards Mr "X", that is, towards Vivekananda Road. Then he found that a person had been shot dead inside that particular car. Immediately he brought this fact to the notice of two policemen who were nearby at the time. When he told these policemen about the killing, they said that they had come to that area because they had received information that there was a suspicious vehicle parked and it had been there for some time. In fact, even the policemen were referring to the same "Isuzu Trooper Jeep" which the businessman had seen. In Sri Lanka, the vehicle referred to above, is used only by the Security forces, especially by the Sri Lanka Army, Ministerial Security Division (MSD) and the Presidential Security Division (PSD). Furthermore, we feel it important to note that the Government Analyst Department who examined the car in which Mr. Ponnambalam was killed could not find any fingerprints anywhere on this car. Even Mr. Kumar Ponnambalam's finger-prints could not be found on the driver's wheel, or anywhere else! The Government Analyst Department checked the car on three separate occasions yet could not recover any evidence whatsoever, and could not find any bullets in this car. Whereas later, two bullets were found in this car by others. A columnist of the Sunday leader of February 13th 2000 has said in his article "It is indeed frightening that anyone called Shantha could become an automatic suspect in the Kumar Ponnambalam case. But then again there are reservations. The media in recent times has been full of allegations about an individual called 'Shantha' who is allegedly a member of the Presidential Security Division. He has been 'credited' with several acts of violence against civilians considered as enemies of this government. But the police so far have not interviewed this gentleman so far in this regard." It is a well-known fact that that Mr. Kumar Ponnambalam was an able Criminal Lawyers in Sri Lanka, who had seen many criminals and murderers in his lifetime. Therefore, anyone with bogus information such as a false name, address, profession, etc could not have approached him. The talk in Colombo is that the organisation which claimed this assassination is not a fake one, but it is considered a front organisation of the Government. In the light of the above information, we kindly request you to send letters / faxes of protest to the President of Sri Lanka and the Inspector General of Police, urging a genuine, rigorous and serious inquiry into this matter and to follow up every suspect whatever sector they belong to or work in. TCHR recommends that the Sri Lanka government should conduct a public inquiry into the brutal assassination of Kumar Ponnambalam. Thank you. The address of the President and IGP are given below: Her Excellency President
Chandrika B. Kumaratunga Inspector General of
Police,
Head Office : Tamil Centre for Human
Rights (TCHR) E-mail : tchrgs@hotmail.com Tamil Centre for Human
Rights (TCHR) |
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