By: R. Jayadevan(October, 18, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Both the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) are conveniently maintaining silence over the gruesome killing of the former LTTE commander and his hundreds of cadres in 1993/94 by the LTTE. Mindset of both GOSL and the LTTE and the secrecy in which they thrive on this single most issue must be a matter for the international community to be concerned about.
LTTE killed one of its commander Gopalasamy Mahendrarajah alias Mahattaya in 1994 allegedly for collaborating with the Indian intelligence Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) for planning to assassinate its leader Velupillai Pirabakaran. His cadres were said to be systematically eliminated in a mass scale in a gruesome manner, by torturing them to the extent of pulling their finger and toe nails with pliers before being executed.
Some of those who escaped death had nowhere to go and were magnanimously accommodated by the Sri Lankan army to help them carryout their ugly war against the LTTE in the north. These elements numbering about 150 are used by the Sri Lankan forces even today to engage in all kinds covert operations in the name of fighting the LTTE. Hatred of these elements against the LTTE is said to have surpassed the bounds and innocent civilian populations have fallen victims for all kinds of petty reasons for over a decade since the LTTE massacre of the Mahattaya battalion.
When murders, rape and kidnappings carried out by these frustrated goons in the north, the LTTE too do not identify the elements. Instead, blame them on the Sri Lankan forces or other anti-LTTE factions operating in the north. This is done to avoid opening its books on the killings of the dead cadres of Mahattaya.
Sri Lankan government decision not to allow the United Nations to set up a monitoring mission in Sri Lanka is nothing more other than to keep these types of skeleton cupboards bolted for ever.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) Louise Arbour who went on a fact finding mission to Sri Lanka last week, in a limited way have given the right message on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka cannot be allowed to continue with its never ending policy of relying on human rights violations to achieve its political end. Both the GOSL and the LTTE are the major contributors to human rights violations. Both of them thrive on the inhuman and degrading behavior by violating the human rights of the civilian population to sustain their political survival.
Mahattaya factor is a matter swept under the carpet by the LTTE and exploited by the GOSL to extend its campaign to subjugate the Tamils in the name of fighting the LTTE.
UNHCHR and the international community must take greater interest in the Mahattaya factor and must put sustained pressure on the GOSL to open its books on human rights violation committed by these nefarious and clandestine elements.
It is the responsibility of the international community to make Sri Lanka party to the Rome Treaty and it will be an important achievement to bring an end to the culture of impunity in the country and find answer to very many hidden human rights violations of the past. The gates of the international court must be open to answer the heinous human rights violations committed by the parties.
Read Also
Mahattaya factor haunting the LTTE and the Tamil people
 Both the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Government of Sri Lanka...){kind=link}
Post a Comment