Macabre consequence of culture of violence bred by terrorism

Six-year old Varsha brutally mutilated so that some chaps could have good life

By Mohan Gunaratnam reporting from Trincomalee

(March 23, Trincomalee, Sri Lanka Guardian) Over three decades of spine-chilling terror breeding headed by the heartless high priest of callous cruelty Velupillai Prabhakaran focused from the beginning on tuition-centre-attending Tamil teenagers has created a culture of inhuman insensitiveness and penchant to indulge in cold-blooded murders and massacres.

Impressionable young people were made to believe that an armed rebellion of the type solely dictated by Prabhakaran was a legitimate political action and all that was necessary was to be armed with deadly weapons and use them freely; even wantonly the way Thamil Selvan graduated himself into the Tiger movement as a pistol gangster. Prabhakaran was ignorant of political ideologies but had dreams of a mafia state under his sole control.

He manipulated Sri Lanka’s ethnic issue and the lack-lustre opportunist Tamil politicians to his advantage and made deadly inroads into the thinking nature and capacity of the Tamils and through sheer terror he resorted to at all times, subjugated them to such an extent to claim that he and he alone should be their sole voice. He decimated all opposition to him and put to slaughter without any conscience whatsoever the community’s leaders.

The damage done has been so deep and extensive that this culture of violence and adulation for such a brutal killer has also spread among some university students in countries where Tamils have settled down in large numbers following the near genocidal pogrom advocated by President Junius Jayawardene in 1983. While the days of the LTTE as a political force have virtually diminished to the single digit in Sri Lanka, the culture of ruthlessness has taken extremely disturbing roots and there are ominous signs of them among the pro-LTTE Diaspora youngsters.

The boding evil is seen in the kind of pro-LTTE demonstrations that are being organized by these youngsters in some of the cities in the west. They want the LTTE spared from total annihilation in Sri Lanka whereas people of Sri Lanka who have suffered much more than enough of their brutality are left with no other option.

They are being encouraged to hold pro-LTTE demonstrations because what is at risk from being exposed is the LTTE underworld network worldwide involved in alien smuggling, illegal arms trade, drugs, counterfeit currency, credit card fraud and numerous other activities.

Of particular interest to young adults especially those who have to run away from the law in Sri Lanka, are the seeking of new havens in countries like Canada and the LTTE is very involved in alien smuggling. There are agents charging fees to the tune of CND$50,000 from each person aided to arrive in Canada. There are others who want to involve in shady business enterprises in Sri Lanka and also elsewhere that demand large sums of funds for such operations.

The need circumstance has become so acute and urgent, young adults are now seeking all possible avenues to raise large sums of funds. It is evident, it was this that caused the grisly murder of a six-year old child from Trincomalee all because her father was employed in Qatar in the Middle East and therefore reckoned as an easy way of collecting a large ransom.

It is evident from information to hand, the persons involved have been close to the kind of terrorism that Prabhakaran let loose among the Tamils immaterial whether the perpetrators came from the TMVP or LTTE for after all they were both one some years ago when they became oriented to bloodthirsty politics of death and devastation.

Lovely little Jude Regi Varsha was a Grade One student of St Mary’s Girls’ School in Trincomalee. Described by her class teacher Mrs Dhanapalan as a bright, vivacious and active girl, she was one of a hundred primary pupils who were admitted to Grade One in January this year and she was in Group A of Grade One. A three-wheeler driver known to the family fetched her to school and back every day.

Wednesday March 11 when classes ended at 11 45 AM she was waiting on her school verandah to be picked up. It appears a little earlier than usual another three-wheeler arrived with a man in a black shirt, and according to her fellow mates, he appeared to be known to her and told her that her mother was sick and he had come to take her home.

She was supposed to have told her friends that he was her “Computer Uncle” evidently the person who was instructing her in the use of the computer and therefore known to the family too.

Varsha obviously had no qualms about going with him in the belief that he was rushing her home to her mother who was reported as being ill. This person, an owner of a computer centre in Trincomalee is Osprin Mervyn Rinousan and was a member of the Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyan’s security squad.

It was when the usual three-wheel driver arrived at school, alarm was raised and there was panic at school and the mother was utterly devastated. A little later the mother received a call from a stranger demanding a massive ransom for her release. They had also telephoned Varsha’s father in Oatar for the same sum but when they were told that kind of ransom was beyond him, the abductors of the child bargained with him and finally settled for one million rupees.

On Friday 13th morning a grim discovery was made of a child brutally mutilated, packed in a sack used for fertilizers and thrown into a drain in the heart of Trincomalee city. The nature of her death was such, it was certainly perpetrated by human beings turned beasts, an orientation that has become the culture of the LTTE and the TMVP considered key to the kind of liberation struggle in which they were engaged in, and still accepted as a legitimate means by the LTTE.

According to the reports we have received, Varsha was blindfolded, strangled, her throat slit, her hands and legs tied and her mouth taped. There were also burn marks on her body and this was just a six-year old child.

Evidently the kind of ransom they demanded was to help find the means to seek refuge overseas and quite likely their destination was Canada helped by the kind of network operated by LTTE interests.

The main suspect in the abduction and killing was the “Computer Master” 23-year old Oprin Mervyn Rinousan who when he tried to breakaway from police custody was shot and killed by them. There were five other suspects. Another suspect was a teenaged son of a woman police officer. A third suspect Janarthan known as Jana and a TMVP cadre committed suicide when the police took him to a place to recover a weapon used in a previous crime. According to the police Jana was a wanted person in connection with three killings.

Rinousan while in captivity was believed to have told the police that the family was not able to pay the ransom they had demanded and since they feared that she would identify them if released, they opted to kill her. When one analyses the killing of Varsha and how the LTTE and also the TMVP personnel get rid of people, sheer ruthless brutality determines the manner of their killings.

How can one relate such people to a political force even if it seeks the means of an armed rebellion? The reasoning of these people is very much the same as to why and innocent child was abducted and for pure selfish ends, killed in such a horrendous manner. How many such people have succeeded raising funds in such a manner and sought a new homeland for them away from Sri Lanka? How many such people have created enterprises using bloodcurdling and hideous methods and enriched themselves in countries like Canada? ENDS

-Sri Lanka Guardian