LTTE hunts down human beings!

(May 15, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Every human being should live with equal dignity and everyone should enjoy the human rights in parity, was the ideal dream of Ms. Maheswary Velautham.

Even the human rights activist have become enemies and fallen pray to an inhuman group which is destroying its own race in the name liberating its own race.

First it was a poet, a Jaffna University Student and feminist Selvi!

Next it was a Human Rights Activist and University lecturer Rajani Thiranagama!!

Today it is Maheswari Velayutham, a person who tirelessly worked towards her people’s redemption and human dignity!!!

There is a proverb in Tamil “Penn Entral Peyum Irangum” meaning, even a demon will feel sorry for a woman. But the hundreds of killings by the LTTE including women like Sarojini Yogeswaran, Pavalarani, Relangi Selvarajah prove that the LTTE does not have any pity for anybody.

Ms. Maheswari Velutham has been a human rights activist in the Tamil Speaking People’s struggle. She is a person who has been continuously working towards the redemption and dignity of our people.

She was born on July 17, 1953 at Karavetti in the Jaffna Vadamarchi area. She continued her higher studies at the Point Pedro North Hindu Ladies College. While being a student at the Colombo Law College, she joined the women’s student wing of the Tamil Federal Party with the pursuit to achieve the political rights of the Tamil speaking people, and started her political journey. After completing her Law degree at the Colombo University she argued cases on human rights and dignity in the Colombo Courts.

In 1977 she attached herself to the Tamil Refugees Rehabilitation Organization (TRRO) founded by K.N. Douglas Devnanada’s uncle and the great Trade Unionist K.C. Nithiyanantha and got working on the humanitarian aspect.

After the 1983 riots in Sri Lankan, she left for India, and there too she started working for the displaced Sri Lankan Tamil refugees to reduce their sufferings in Tamil Nadu.

In Madurai she started the Tamil Information Centre and was the director of the Centre. She did not stop there; she formed the Movement for Inter Racial Justice and Equality (MIRJE) in Tamil Nadu and provided medical help and counseling at centres for her people. She also got in touch with the Indian and Tamil Nadu governments and community concerned Diaspora in the West and did her best to reduce the sufferings of the Tamil refugees by getting help to improve their education, health facilities and self-employment.

When the armed struggle for the political rights of the Tamil speaking started, she supported her brothers, who were in the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO). By supporting the TELO organization then, the family of Ms. Maheswary Velautham sacrificed and contributed immensely to our political struggle.

The LTTE started eliminating all the other organizations one by one. The LTTE fascism of Tamils killing Tamils destroyed the strength of our struggle. Our struggle took a turn for the worse. The Indo Sri Lanka Accord was formed.

At that time Ms. Maheswary was in Tamil Nadu and was interested and involved in spirituality, although waiting for an opportunity to work for her people again on her soil for the human dignity and human rights.

In 1995 she accepted the EPDP Secretary General Douglas Devnanad’s request to come to Sri Lanka and joined the EPDP and started her work in her motherland.

At the very same time, when the LTTE deserted Jaffna and its people and ran away from Jaffna, the EPDP stepped in and did its best to help them cope with their grief. EPDP addressed some of the difficulties faced by the people of Jaffna. At that time under the leadership of our Secretary General Douglas Devananda Ms. Maheswary Velautham did invaluable legal service to our people, which shall never be forgotten in the history of our struggle.

Many Tamil lawmakers think their duty is only to raise their voices in parliament. But Ms. Maheswary Velautham played a major roll in the legal aspect, when the EPDP took up the humanitarian issues with the authorities, such as the disappearances and Chemmani incident in the Jaffna Peninsula.

She formed an organization for the parents of the disappeared children in the Jaffna Peninsula and brought the issue out into the world and played a major role in preventing further disappearances and kidnappings in the area.

With the support of the EPDP not only did she expose the human rights violations, but also the killings of Krishanthy in Jaffna, Sarathambal in Punguduthevu and Koneswari in Amaparai.

She did not believe in blaming anybody else for the human rights violations but felt that if the LTTE had accepted the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord, we could have prevented the destruction of so many lives.

She formed the Forum of Human Dignity. She used her legal expertise along with the EPDP’s service to the people and got the youth released from the prisons, free of charge. It is heartwarming to see the parents of these youth shed tears of joy when they get their children back. Without any discrimination, she would get the youth from any organization released free of charge. She even used her legal expertise to free some of the forced Tiger detainees.

Not only did she serve her people in Sri Lanka she also helped the Tamil refugee claimants in other countries by providing evidence and documents to support their claims whenever possible.
Ms. Maheswary Velayutham was a senior member of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party and the advisor to the Secretary General Douglas Devananda at the Ministry of Social Services and Social Welfare. At the later stage, she represented the EPDP and participated in the All Party Conference and voiced her view in a pragmatic manner and argued to get the rights of our people.

Maheswary was very affectionate towards the children of the EPDP members who were killed by the LTTE. She was involved in the raising and caring for the kids who were made orphans by the killing of their parents by the LTTE, and who are now under the direct care of the EPDP Secretary General K.N. Douglas Devananda. Even those children are grieving at the loss of the person who looked after their welfare and wonder if the people who killed her would ever be able to deliver justice to them.

She was lovingly called as Maheswary Akka by our comrades and Secretary General.
She is not an average human being!
She spoke for Human Dignity!
She worked for Human Rights!
She sacrificed her life for the redemption of our people!

She sacrificed herself, her happiness and loved and lived for her ideals. She believed and worked for the women’s right, the upliftment of women, human dignity and freedom and political freedom. We should also take in to consideration the tremendous contribution and advice given by her to Minister Devananda’s Ministry.

Who does not love their mother? She went to see her seriously ailing mother in her death bed, and the Tigers killed her brutally in cold blood in front of her family members. Human Society will never accept this brutality!

By killing a human being who fought for the freedom of women and her people, for whose freedom are the LTTE waging this destructive war?....

Who would be able to answer this question?...
We will not stop!
We are encouraged to march forward not discouraged by the your brutal killing!
Maheswary Akka’s memories will continue….
- Sri Lanka Guardian