FALL 1996
NEWS SUMMARIES
| At Last - Kittu is Vindicated An Indian court ordered the release of nine Tamils of Thamileelam arrested on 13 Jan 1993, after their ship, MV Ahat was captured by the Indian navy. Judge P. Lakshman Reddy asked the Indian authorities to return them to Honduras, where their ship was originally registered. Judge Reddy, in his judgment, said the LTTE ship was in international waters, approximately 220 nautical miles from the Indian coast, when the Indian Navy intercepted it in January 1993. The prosecutors could not show any evidence that the ship intended to enter Indian waters. "As long the ship was not contemplating any action against the Indian government, the navy had no business to intercept (it) and demand boarding", said Judge Reddy. Ten passengers, including Sathasivan Krishnakumar (Kittu), were killed when the Indian navy attempted to forcibly board the ship. Nine other LTTE occupants of the ship were arrested by the Indian Navy. The defence counsel, K.V. Ramamurthy, said that the navy was instructed by the Indian inelligence agency (RAW) to intercept the ship because Kittu was on board, carrying a peace proposal made by some European countries, and the agency did not want to be excluded from the affairs of Sri Lanka. But, he said Kittu was not on board, which the prosecutors could not disprove as none of the 3 bodies recovered was that of Kittu. The defense took this position, apparently to ward off any attempts by the prosecutors to justify the navy attack on the ship as an action to arrest Kittu as a material witness to some case in India. Judge Reddy said the prosecution failed to prove its case against the nine accused and added that those arrested were sailing to Sri Lanka and posed no threat to India. Being a Tamil in
Colombo - If life in Jaffna is harrowing for the Tamils, that in Colombo is no better. Hundreds are rounded up each week, and many have disappeared. The Sinhala owned media in Colombo either turns a blind eye or reports the arrests as "definite" LTTE cadres "with cyanide capsules in their pockets." A recent arrest of a high profile Tamil couple has blown a hole in this Mutt & Jeff game between the Sri Lankan media and the security forces. Jeevan Hoole’s sister and her husband (Mr. & Mrs. Edwards) were arrested at the Pettah bus station. Ratnajeevan Hoole Ph.D. is a human rights activist who recently moved from California to Sri Lanka, because he felt that, "we Tamils too should make a clear commitment to those Sinhalese who were taking risks on our behalf against bigots." In a published article Jeevan has described his sister’s ordeal when she was arrested. Mrs. Tamari Edwards is a Lecturer in Math at Jaffna University, who is on leave to do research at the Peradeniya campus. Her husband works for Ford Rhodes & Thornton, a private firm in Kandy. Mr. & Mrs. Edwards were taken to a detention center, where they were abused and intimidated. She was hit with a baton and then, according to Jeevan, she was forced to "raise her skirt by a voyeuristic investigating officer." Their pleas to inform family members were ignored. They were then produced before a magistrate who remanded them, without any evidence against them whatsoever, for 10 days. They were jailed in the section of the Welikade prison where hundreds of LTTE suspects are held without bail, some for up to 4 years. This section of the prison is said to be dirty, unsanitary and very overcrowded even by Sri Lankan prison standards. Fortunately for them, someone with prison connections informed Jeevan, who with the support of an NGO and an attorney, managed to get them released. As a final indignity, his brother-in-law had to pay Rs. 50 to avoid appearing in court in handcuffs, to have his case dismissed.
A documentary film on women soldiers of the LTTE shown on British TV has angered the Sinhalese. The Sri Lankan High Commissioner to UK, and K.G.R. Alwis, of the Sinhala Bala Mandalaya, wrote angrily to Channel 4 to protest airing of this program. Cannel 4 said they received 99 phone calls within an hour of the program being aired. Although about 60 were congratulatory messages, the rest were from angry Sinhalese. Alwis in his letter said, "The evil TV programme you showed to millions of viewers has been produced by a Tamil terrorist, with the backing of Tamil terrorist funds, narrated by a paid up individual by the Tamil terrorist sympathisers and broadcast by a television channel of GB who condones terrorism." According to Channel 4, the documentary was funded entirely by them, and not by any "terrorists," as asserted by Mr. Alwis. The Tamil terrorist referred to in Mr. Alwis' letter is Dr. S. Sathananthan, the producer of the film. He holds a Ph.D. from Cambridge (Wolfson) and was the Assistant Director of the Marga Institute (Colombo), where he was coordinator of research on South Asian regional cooperation in development (CSCD). He is also the cofounder Chairman of Mandru (Institute for Alternative Development and Regional Cooperation), which he cofounded in 1989. His publications and research interests cover national movements, democratization and nation building in Sri Lanka and South Asia. Dr. Satha is also a film maker, and with his wife, Sabiha, he has produced several feature films that have been shown on national TV in many countries He said to Tamil Voice that, "the film only showed that
these women are in fact human beings." But, this is something that the (Sri Lankan)
government doesn’t want." They are spending millions trying to demonize the
LTTE, and this film certainly negates that effort. He also said that following the showing
of this film his house in Colombo was visited by the Sri Lankan police and the army.
War and
Peace in By Adrian Wijemanne The much awaited book, titled,
"War and Peace in Post Colonial Ceylon", When you call please tell them where you heard about this book.
WTO UK Chapter Ilankai Tamil Sangam
Washington
Melrose Publications Ltd., |
