The information published herein is true account of genuine sources and due to security and safety reasons the person’s identities are withheld. Sri Lanka Guardian will put in touch the persons concerned with any independent international legal or human rights bodies that wish to take statement about the facts reported herein.
According to our sources, on the 18 (Monday) May 2009 at 8.00am, the day before the official end of the war, Fr Francis Joseph had made arrangements with the army to surrender about 45 members of the LTTE in Vanni. They were taken to an agreed point near Vaduvaal in Vanni and they surrendered to the army in the presence of many civilians waiting to be taken to transit camps.
The army separated the LTTE men from the civilian and carried out a thorough body search of each person. Following this, each one of them were photographed and boarded into a bus and taken away.
A civilian witnessing the surrender confirmed that LTTE’s senior men Lawrence Thilagar later known as Lawrence Christy, Illamparuthi, Yogaratnam Yogi, LTTE’s poet laureate Puthuvai Rathinathurai, Thangam, Kutti, Paapa and Ponnavan were some of the surrendered LTTE men. With them was Fr Francis Joseph.He too was taken away by the army.
The relatives of these LTTE members have made several attempts to find the whereabouts of these men including Fr Joseph, but they were facing the brick wall all the time. Some of them in desperation had approached the Minister Douglas Devananda, but he had scoffed off their requests by saying that they are not in army custody.
One of the witness also confirmed that LTTE’s K V Balakumar surrendered to the army on the 16 May 2009 and he was taken away into captivity by the army.
Minister Dew Gunasekara’s confirmation that both Yogaratnam Yogi and K V Balakumar died in the battle, contrary to their surrender and detention by the army is worrying tales for the relatives who fear that the others too may have faced same fate like the two claimed by the minister Dew Gunesekara. The witness asserted that both men did not die in the battle and categorically refuted the minister’s claim of death in the battlefield.
The Sri Lanka Guardian is publishing a disturbing recording of a LTTE cadre being tortured by the army, possibly killed by them. This recording is filed in the youtube.com. According to information circulated, this was made public by a dissident Sri Lankan journalist group. It is unclear whether the person was tortured during the final battle or is one of those surrendered to the army.
Sri Lanka Guardian welcomes any information on this recording from its readers. Our email address is feed@srilankaguardian.org.
 Following the revelation recently by the Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms Minister Dew Gunaseker...){kind=link}
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