By our correspondent
10 April 2007
Sri Lankan Socialist Equality Party (SEP) member Nadarajah Wimaleswaran and his friend, Sivanathan Mathivathanan, disappeared from the northern island of Kayts more than two weeks ago. Despite a stream of letters from Sri Lanka and internationally demanding an urgent inquiry, the defence ministry, the military and the police are engaged in what can only be described as a cover-up.
Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan were last seen on March 22 at about 6.30 p.m. at a naval roadblock on Punguduthivu island, preparing to enter a causeway to Kayts island. Wimaleswaran was on the back of Mathivathanan’s motorbike, having gone to Punguduthivu to collect some clothes from a friend’s house.
Punguduthivu navy camp commander Hemantha Peiris told the SEP that Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan had been noted in the register as passing through the roadblock. However, Velanai navy camp commanding officer Silva on Kayts has provided no information about the pair. He claimed the navy had not detained or arrested them.
The SEP’s own investigations have confirmed the presence of two Criminal Investigation Department (CID) police officers at the Kayts roadblock. The CID officers, who are fluent Tamil speakers, are attached to the Kayts police station and are often involved in questioning people. They are well known to locals, who describe them as the “secret police” because they do not give out their names.
An eyewitness saw the two CID police officers questioning Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan near the Kayts roadblock as they were heading to Punguduthivu at about 5.30 p.m. Obvious questions remain unanswered about what happened at the roadblock on their return an hour later. What did the CID officers question Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan about? Was the pair seized by the military and/or police officers? If they were allowed to pass through, why the extraordinary reluctance by authorities at all levels to provide any details?
After numerous phone calls to officials in Colombo and the northern Jaffna area, no information has been provided to the SEP about what took place at the Kayts roadblock. The self-evident line of investigation would be to question the naval personnel and CID officers who were present at the time.
* Additional defence ministry secretary H. K. Balasooriya told the SEP she has asked Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) director Chandra Vakishta if the TID police unit had arrested Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan. She said she had also asked the police Deputy Inspector General (DIG) in charge of the northern range about his investigation. However, Balasooriya has provided no answers and declared she cannot “pressurise” the police.
* SEP general secretary Wije Dias contacted additional defence ministry secretary Sunil S. Sirisena last Thursday. Sirisena said he would contact the navy commander over the SEP’s suspicion of naval involvement in the disappearance of Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan. No information has been forthcoming.
* The SEP last week spoke to police DIG (northern range) Mahinda Balasuriya, who said the police needed a week to complete the report. When pressed on the urgency of the matter, he declared that the police were unable to travel to many places in the north due to “security reasons”.
* The SEP has spoken to the officer in charge (OIC) of Kayts police to find out what steps had been taken regarding the party’s formal complaint. The officer claimed yesterday that the disappearance was being investigated by other officers and promised more information in two hours. Since then, he has been unavailable.
Since President Mahinda Rajapakse plunged the country back to war last year, hundreds of people have disappeared or been killed by death squads aligned to the military. On Kayts island alone, there have been 37 disappearances. Of those, three bodies have been found. Nothing is known about the fate of the remaining 34.
Kandiah Kanapathy Mahendran, for instance, disappeared in Velanai on December 10 after attending a wedding. His family members spent two months in Colombo trying to find out if he was being held at a detention centre in the south of the island, but to no avail.
The SEP is continuing its campaign to demand that the Sri Lankan authorities carry out an urgent investigation to locate Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan. Wimaleswaran has been an SEP member since 1998 and is well known for his internationalist socialist convictions, his determination to fight for defence of the rights of the working people and to oppose the war. We call on SEP supporters and WSWS readers to continue to send letters supporting our campaign.
Letters can be sent to:
Gotabhaya Rajapakse,
Secretary of Ministry of Defence,
15/5 Baladaksha Mawatha,
Colombo 3, Sri Lanka
Fax: 009411 2541529
e-mail: secretary@defence.lk
N. G. Punchihewa
Director of Complaints and Inquiries,
Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission,
No. 36, Kinsey Road,
Colombo 8, Sri Lanka
Fax: 009411 2694924
Copies should be sent to the Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka) and the World Socialist Web Site.
Socialist Equality Party,
P.O. Box 1270,
Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Email: wswscmb@sltnet.lk
To send letters to the WSWS editorial board please use this online form.
Below is a further selection of the letters sent so far.
***
April 5, 2007
Mr. Rajapakse and Mr. Punchihewa,
The Socialist Labour League (SLL) of India holds the Sri Lankan government and its security forces responsible for the disappearance of Socialist Equality Party (SEP) member Nadarajah Wimaleswaran and his friend Sivanathan Mathivathanan on the evening of March 22 in the Jaffna peninsula’s islands in northern Sri Lanka and demands that the Sri Lankan government and its military immediately conduct an investigation into their disappearance.
The circumstances under which Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan disappeared indicate that they could not have disappeared without the knowledge of the Sri Lankan army and navy, which have a tight and complete control of the islets of the peninsula where they were last seen.
In fact, all evidence now suggests that Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan could have been apprehended by the CID and the navy on Kayts end of the long causeway between the islands of Punguduthivu and Kayts.
The spot where they seem to have disappeared on March 22, about a few hours before the 8 pm curfew came into effect—the roadblock at the Kayts end of the causeway—was not only manned by 15 navy men but also by two CID men fluent in Tamil. These CID men were routinely involved in interrogating the local people at the roadblocks in the area and enjoyed powers to arbitrarily detain people “on suspicion”. Thus evidence strongly suggests that Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan were apprehended by the CID and navy on Kayts end of the Punguduthivu-Kayts causeway and at the very least, taken into their custody.
It is well known the world over, that hundreds of Tamils in the north and east of the island have been killed, abducted or have “disappeared” over the past year. It is also a well established fact that the forces behind these killings, abductions and disappearances are none other than the notorious death squads of the Sri Lankan security forces or their associated paramilitaries. The navy operates in collaboration with the paramilitary wing of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP)—a partner in the ruling coalition government of President Rajapakse—in the area where Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan were last seen.
Despite the mounting international protests and the formal complaints made to the defence ministry, the navy camps in Kayts and Punguduthivu and the police in Jaffna by the Sri Lankan SEP, no effective action whatsoever has been initiated by the Sri Lankan government, its police or its military to find Wimaleswaran and his friend Mathivathanan.
Last year the SLL in India collected hundreds of signatures from students of various colleges in the south Indian city of Chennai, to demand that the Sri Lankan government launch an urgent investigation into the murder of SEP supporter Sivapragasam Mariyadas at his home in Mullipothana, and prosecute the killers.
The Socialist Labour League will in the coming days and weeks step up its campaign in India among workers, students, youths, intellectuals and all other sections of the working people to secure the immediate and safe release of Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan as well as to demand an immediate launching of an investigation by Sri Lankan government into the murder of SEP supporter Sivapragasam Mariyadas and to bring to book his murderers.
Arun Kumar,
National Secretary,
Socialist Labour League
India.
10 April 2007
Sri Lankan Socialist Equality Party (SEP) member Nadarajah Wimaleswaran and his friend, Sivanathan Mathivathanan, disappeared from the northern island of Kayts more than two weeks ago. Despite a stream of letters from Sri Lanka and internationally demanding an urgent inquiry, the defence ministry, the military and the police are engaged in what can only be described as a cover-up.
Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan were last seen on March 22 at about 6.30 p.m. at a naval roadblock on Punguduthivu island, preparing to enter a causeway to Kayts island. Wimaleswaran was on the back of Mathivathanan’s motorbike, having gone to Punguduthivu to collect some clothes from a friend’s house.
Punguduthivu navy camp commander Hemantha Peiris told the SEP that Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan had been noted in the register as passing through the roadblock. However, Velanai navy camp commanding officer Silva on Kayts has provided no information about the pair. He claimed the navy had not detained or arrested them.
The SEP’s own investigations have confirmed the presence of two Criminal Investigation Department (CID) police officers at the Kayts roadblock. The CID officers, who are fluent Tamil speakers, are attached to the Kayts police station and are often involved in questioning people. They are well known to locals, who describe them as the “secret police” because they do not give out their names.
An eyewitness saw the two CID police officers questioning Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan near the Kayts roadblock as they were heading to Punguduthivu at about 5.30 p.m. Obvious questions remain unanswered about what happened at the roadblock on their return an hour later. What did the CID officers question Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan about? Was the pair seized by the military and/or police officers? If they were allowed to pass through, why the extraordinary reluctance by authorities at all levels to provide any details?
After numerous phone calls to officials in Colombo and the northern Jaffna area, no information has been provided to the SEP about what took place at the Kayts roadblock. The self-evident line of investigation would be to question the naval personnel and CID officers who were present at the time.
* Additional defence ministry secretary H. K. Balasooriya told the SEP she has asked Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) director Chandra Vakishta if the TID police unit had arrested Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan. She said she had also asked the police Deputy Inspector General (DIG) in charge of the northern range about his investigation. However, Balasooriya has provided no answers and declared she cannot “pressurise” the police.
* SEP general secretary Wije Dias contacted additional defence ministry secretary Sunil S. Sirisena last Thursday. Sirisena said he would contact the navy commander over the SEP’s suspicion of naval involvement in the disappearance of Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan. No information has been forthcoming.
* The SEP last week spoke to police DIG (northern range) Mahinda Balasuriya, who said the police needed a week to complete the report. When pressed on the urgency of the matter, he declared that the police were unable to travel to many places in the north due to “security reasons”.
* The SEP has spoken to the officer in charge (OIC) of Kayts police to find out what steps had been taken regarding the party’s formal complaint. The officer claimed yesterday that the disappearance was being investigated by other officers and promised more information in two hours. Since then, he has been unavailable.
Since President Mahinda Rajapakse plunged the country back to war last year, hundreds of people have disappeared or been killed by death squads aligned to the military. On Kayts island alone, there have been 37 disappearances. Of those, three bodies have been found. Nothing is known about the fate of the remaining 34.
Kandiah Kanapathy Mahendran, for instance, disappeared in Velanai on December 10 after attending a wedding. His family members spent two months in Colombo trying to find out if he was being held at a detention centre in the south of the island, but to no avail.
The SEP is continuing its campaign to demand that the Sri Lankan authorities carry out an urgent investigation to locate Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan. Wimaleswaran has been an SEP member since 1998 and is well known for his internationalist socialist convictions, his determination to fight for defence of the rights of the working people and to oppose the war. We call on SEP supporters and WSWS readers to continue to send letters supporting our campaign.
Letters can be sent to:
Gotabhaya Rajapakse,
Secretary of Ministry of Defence,
15/5 Baladaksha Mawatha,
Colombo 3, Sri Lanka
Fax: 009411 2541529
e-mail: secretary@defence.lk
N. G. Punchihewa
Director of Complaints and Inquiries,
Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission,
No. 36, Kinsey Road,
Colombo 8, Sri Lanka
Fax: 009411 2694924
Copies should be sent to the Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka) and the World Socialist Web Site.
Socialist Equality Party,
P.O. Box 1270,
Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Email: wswscmb@sltnet.lk
To send letters to the WSWS editorial board please use this online form.
Below is a further selection of the letters sent so far.
***
April 5, 2007
Mr. Rajapakse and Mr. Punchihewa,
The Socialist Labour League (SLL) of India holds the Sri Lankan government and its security forces responsible for the disappearance of Socialist Equality Party (SEP) member Nadarajah Wimaleswaran and his friend Sivanathan Mathivathanan on the evening of March 22 in the Jaffna peninsula’s islands in northern Sri Lanka and demands that the Sri Lankan government and its military immediately conduct an investigation into their disappearance.
The circumstances under which Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan disappeared indicate that they could not have disappeared without the knowledge of the Sri Lankan army and navy, which have a tight and complete control of the islets of the peninsula where they were last seen.
In fact, all evidence now suggests that Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan could have been apprehended by the CID and the navy on Kayts end of the long causeway between the islands of Punguduthivu and Kayts.
The spot where they seem to have disappeared on March 22, about a few hours before the 8 pm curfew came into effect—the roadblock at the Kayts end of the causeway—was not only manned by 15 navy men but also by two CID men fluent in Tamil. These CID men were routinely involved in interrogating the local people at the roadblocks in the area and enjoyed powers to arbitrarily detain people “on suspicion”. Thus evidence strongly suggests that Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan were apprehended by the CID and navy on Kayts end of the Punguduthivu-Kayts causeway and at the very least, taken into their custody.
It is well known the world over, that hundreds of Tamils in the north and east of the island have been killed, abducted or have “disappeared” over the past year. It is also a well established fact that the forces behind these killings, abductions and disappearances are none other than the notorious death squads of the Sri Lankan security forces or their associated paramilitaries. The navy operates in collaboration with the paramilitary wing of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP)—a partner in the ruling coalition government of President Rajapakse—in the area where Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan were last seen.
Despite the mounting international protests and the formal complaints made to the defence ministry, the navy camps in Kayts and Punguduthivu and the police in Jaffna by the Sri Lankan SEP, no effective action whatsoever has been initiated by the Sri Lankan government, its police or its military to find Wimaleswaran and his friend Mathivathanan.
Last year the SLL in India collected hundreds of signatures from students of various colleges in the south Indian city of Chennai, to demand that the Sri Lankan government launch an urgent investigation into the murder of SEP supporter Sivapragasam Mariyadas at his home in Mullipothana, and prosecute the killers.
The Socialist Labour League will in the coming days and weeks step up its campaign in India among workers, students, youths, intellectuals and all other sections of the working people to secure the immediate and safe release of Wimaleswaran and Mathivathanan as well as to demand an immediate launching of an investigation by Sri Lankan government into the murder of SEP supporter Sivapragasam Mariyadas and to bring to book his murderers.
Arun Kumar,
National Secretary,
Socialist Labour League
India.
Source:
