NGO’s & Murder of Dr. Palitha Pathmakumara

by Jeanne Jayasinghe

(November 24, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) Dr. Palitha Pathmakumara was the only medical officer serving at the Rural Hospital Vavunathivu. This medical officer treated the medical ailments of the villagers from Vavunathivu, Eechanthivu, Kanankuda and Navakkadu. He was also a teacher, counsellor and a father figure to people who have been traumatised by LTTE terrorism for nearly 3 decades. His patients called him Dr. Kumara.

He could have lived in comfort and safety somewhere in the south, earning millions through channelling, instead, he chose to work in a rural village close to the war zone.

Dr. Palitha Pathmakumara was murdered by the LTTE terrorists who entered his quarters on the night of the 16 of November 2008 and performed the dastardly deed before the eyes of his wife. When fleeing away, they killed Thambirasa Yokendiran a neighbour of the Doctor, to stop him identifying them. The killers have been positively identified by others who witnessed them leaving the scene of their crime, as the group of LTTE cadres who have been carrying out political assassinations in the area.

Dr. Kumara - as he was affectionately known - was murdered for one and only one reason. He was disproving the myth for the existence of the LTTE – that the Sinhalese people were monsters whose only mission in life was to annihilate the Tamil race and this good doctor was doing just the opposite.

This gruesome murder has shocked the country but the human rights activists are silent. Indeed, the silence from them is deafening!

These INGOs, and NGOs, some media personnel become very vociferous, brandishing their pens and running around the world proclaiming for all and sundry to hear that the government and the armed forces are violating human rights – each time the LTTE faces defeat. When a person who was performing a humanitarian service among the very people of whom the LTTE are supposed to be sole representatives has been murdered by the LTTE, they are silent.

Why the double standards? If you are human rights activist, you should protest about any violation of the rights of another human. What is more of a violation than being deprived of life? Especially a human being who was also a humane being, transcending the bounds of communalism to heal those whose minds have been poisoned by racism.

Why have these arch champions of human rights not gone out in the streets demanding that the LTTE stop this violence towards civilians? Why have they not condemned this senseless act of murdering a doctor who was helping Tamil villagers?

Is it because they have not heard about this latest dastardly act of the LTTE cadres or is there a more sinister reason behind their silence?

Whatever the reason for their silence, it only shows their nudity. You will be judged not by your words but by your deeds. These “Human Rights Champions” have abrogated their right to make a song a dance about human rights violations by this one act of omission.

[The writer is President of the Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka Inc (SPUR) ] - Sri Lanka Guardian