Sri Lanka President must be held responsible

Late Sivalingam’s wife crying at the cortege leaving for cremation

(January 01, Jaffna, Sri Lanka Guardian) The cold blooded murder of Markandu Sivalingam, the Deputy Director of Education of Jaffna, confirms the hallmarks of the state involvement in the murder to give a message to the Tamils that it wants to have absolute control over their affairs. Supported by the sheer military presence to have a tab on each and every Tamils of the north, the government is fully geared to violently deal with even the semblance of criticism of its actions against the Tamils.

The military also has at its disposal, the most hated Tamil paramilitaries and former LTTE combatants who deserted the movement over the years on various grounds that play an important part in the kidnaps and murders in Jaffna.

Lethal of all are the well groomed men of former LTTE military head Mahataya and the unscrupulous paramilitary group of Minister Douglas Devananda.

Gopalasamy Mahendrarajah alias Mahathaya was the second in command of the LTTE and was executed on 28 December 1994 by the LTTE on the charges of collaboration with the Indian intelligence service RAW. Following his arrest, detention and execution a section of his men sought sanctuary with the army.

They are well looked after at the Palaly army camp to the extent of them marrying Sinhala women and managing their lives within the army compound. The quantum of the disgruntled LTTE men is said to be about forty odd men, and is well known to be very ruthless and are prepared to do anything instructed to them by the state.

Since the defeat of the LTTE, the government did not make any effort to disarm or disown these paramilitary groups. They are being used to extent the governments control over the Tamil people.

The Mahathaya group is said to very lethal and are said to be part of the army and at times are uniformed.

Since the defeat of the LTTE, both Mahataya group and Douglas Devananda’s paramilitary groups have kidnapped and executed many Tamils on the grounds of victims opposing the government and having links with the LTTE in the past.

The Deputy Director of Education Markandu Sivalingam’s murder occurred following his opposition to sing the national anthem in Sinhala in Jaffna. The killing confirms the hallmarks of the paramilitary mission of the government. Coming in motorcycles, wearing balaclavas and executing their mission with precision which the military is giving them in abundance have become commonality these days. Knowing the victims backgrounds, one can easily confirm the culprits are these lethal paramilitaries who are aiding and abating with the government forces.

Military’s admission of army/LTTE complicity on the killing of the 56-year-old Hindu priest Niththiyantha Sharma and his two brothers on 11 December 2010 confirms the linkage of the Mahataya group and the army in the murder.

Whilst these murders received widest publicity there are many other murders and kidnaps in the heavy presence of the army, and no progress have been made to arrest the perpetrators so far.

Impunity enjoyed by the killers is unimaginable and is no different to situation faced on the killing of the veteran Sunday Leader founder and editor Lasantha Wickramatunge two years ago.

The government must be made to disown its links with the paramilitaries and efforts must be made to disarm these groups without delay.

When leading government ministers are asked about the disarmament of these paramilitary groups, they will only say privately, they cannot let the paramilitaries down as they have given so much support to the government to defeat the LTTE. If this is what the policy of the government, the government must be held responsible for the crimes and the anti-social activities of these paramilitary groups. These crimes must be treated as extension of war crimes post defeat of the LTTE.