Archive for July, 2005
Thursday, July 21st, 2005
5. The Sooriyamoorthy Assassination
The LTTE takes great pains to paint all its victims as paramilitaries of some sort. Take the case of Mr.P. Sooriyamoorthy, the highly respected former mayor of Trincomalee and father of five children, who contested the parliamentary elections in Jaffna in April 2004 on Mr. Anandasangary’s party list. As mayor, the Government gave into Sinhalese extremist sentiment in preventing him from opening the new market he built for Trincomalee. He also earned the appreciation of Tamil passengers who had to travel by ship to Jaffna in the latter 1990s by arranging rest facilities for them.
Until he died Sooriyamoorthy was a frequent caller at Mr. Anandasangary’s home in Colombo where he used to help with office work. Though warned by friends, he did not take the LTTE threat seriously enough as it had no pretext for branding him a traitor. The controversy over the overnight erection of a new Buddha statue led to tension and a shutdown of Trincomalee on Tuesday 17th May. In the evening of the very next day, Sooriyamoorthy was shot at his home and injured. He was airlifted to Colombo for emergency surgery and died a week later as the shooting had damaged his liver.
On the very day Sooriyamoorthy was shot, “Nitharsanam” with close links to LTTE intelligence announced that he had been attacked by government, majoritarian Buddhist fanatics. This was initially believed even by persons close to Sooriyamoorthy. But there were witnesses who could testify to the contrary – relatives and neighbors who saw and heard the assault. It soon got out that
four young men on motor cycles had arrived at his house on the night of the attack, and asked him to come with them to discuss a business deal. Sooriyamoorthy was reportedly suspicious and refused. When his assailants tried to physically force him outside, there was a struggle.. The killers panicked, shot him in the abdomen and thigh and ran away, leaving him injured. The hero supposedly killed by Sinhalese fanatics became an embarrassment to the LTTE. When he died there were tell-tale virtual admissions by the killers. The Tamil Sakthy TV where his daughter Sooriyaprabha worked failed to announce his death. The London-based LTTE-run IBC Radio described Sooriyamoorthy as a man castaway (thrown) and rejected by the people, in reference to the elections mercilessly rigged by the LTTE.
The climax came in a statement claiming responsibility for Sooriyamoorthy’s murder, dated 27th May, printed in the Uthayan and other LTTE-controlled media and supposedly faxed to them, claiming to have come from a Seralathan, writing as spokesman for the Tamil National Army associated with Karuna. The statement claimed that Sooriyamoorthy was killed because he was a spy for the LTTE Vanni group. The allegedly Karuna statement was publicised exclusively in the media of his enemy. Even more curiously, the statement gave its address as Pandivirichchan, Vavuniya, a solidly LTTE-controlled area in the Vanni! That is also a statement of affairs within the LTTE.
It is dishonest to pretend that these are killings between the LTTE and paramilitaries that one can do nothing about. Every murder gives out its secrets under scrutiny. Even Sooriyamoorthy had been reduced in death to a paramilitary, this time a paramilitary of the LTTE, as if that made his murder less of an issue. It was a calculated and resounding attack on democracy, aided by the hullabaloo created over the statue by friends in need - Buddhist extremists.
Iqbal Athas reported (Sunday Times 10 Jul.05): “Rear Admiral Weerasekera, according to a report from a state intelligence agency, had addressed a gathering of three wheeler scooter taxi drivers who are known to be responsible for placing the statue.” The Rear Admiral who was moved out of Trincomalee by the President later denied the charge, but the intense security in the eastern town would not have permitted the erection of the statue without the connivance of the security forces. In Trincomalee, the minorities have felt the heavy hand of discrimination enforced by local security commanders in favour of the Sinhalese. In January 1997 Brigadier P.S.B. Kulatunge prevented Mayor Sooriyamoorthy from opening the new market he had built, as the city father, obscurely citing “the deterioriating situation in the area, and the general interest of the public in Trincomalee” (Special Report No.8). Now it would appear that another security top brass erected a Buddha statue thus creating a ‘deteriorating security situation’ to give the Tigers the cover to kill the former city father. The Buddha statue that signalled his death promises to remain the monument to the city father’s memory, rather than the new market he built and was not allowed to open.
http://www.uthr.org/bulletins/bul38.htm#_Toc135544187
Posted in Election 2004, Intimidations/Murders, Media | No Comments »
Monday, July 11th, 2005
Courtesy:Sunday Times
From Neville de Silva in London
The funeral of Sajjnuja Parathasangari, a British national of Sri Lankan origin who perished in the terrorist bomb blasts here on July 7, was held here yesterday.
Ms. Parathasangari, a niece of TULF leader V. Anandasangari was travelling in the No 30 bus passing Kings Cross when it was blown up by a suicide bomber, one hour or so after the rest of the suicide team had already exploded the devices they were carrying on three different tube trains.
Though Ms. Parathasangari had obtained British nationality, Sri Lanka High Commissioner Kshenuka Senewiratne and the deputy high commissioner visited the residence of her parents on Thursday and spent about half an hour there.
Ms. Parathasangari’s body was released to the next of kin several days after the incident during which her identity was established and forensic examinations were conduct to ascertain the cause of death.
Another person of Sri Lankan origin, Praveen Wijendran, who was injured in the blast at Liverpool Street was under treatment at St Thomas Hospital in London.
Sri Lanka High Commission officials who tried to visit Wijendran in hospital to provide any possible assistance are said to have been told by hospital authorities that they would need to obtain official permission to visit the patient as he was a British citizen.
Meanwhile sections of the Tamil community are worried that the inevitable increase in anti-terrorism surveillance and the targeting of Muslims since the bombings might affect them too.
Since the first-ever suicide bombings in Britain, the pioneering activities of the Tamil Tigers in suicide attacks have figured in British media coverage.
A Tamil resident who did not want to be identified said that a recent reference by a leader of Britain’s Muslim Parliament to the suicide bombings done by the LTTE during an ITN television interview had focused attention on the Tigers and generally on Tamils.
There were also references in the print media such as The Guardian and another report from New Delhi referring to the suicide missions carried out by the Tigers.
The Tamils who spoke on conditions of anonymity said that the recent killings in Northeastern and Eastern Sri Lanka have revived fears of a return to war and therefore the glare of media publicity that will focus on the Tamil community.
“Unfortunately the suicide bombings by Muslims have angered some of the British people. We hear one Muslim has been killed and others attacked. We hope that this anger will not turn against us Tamils too because of the LTTE.”
They said that the Tamil community had come under scrutiny following several killings, criminal frauds and other crimes.
“You must have heard that Scotland Yard has started a special unit for Tamil crimes. Now we might come under surveillance again by the anti-terrorism people,” said one who fears that the Tamils might come under the microscope because of the activities of others of Asian origin.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/050717/index.html
More Leads:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_July_2005_London_bombings
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/special/londonTerror/london.swf
Posted in Family Members Killed, Media | No Comments »
Monday, July 11th, 2005
Courtesy: The Island
By Bandula Jayasekara
Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) leader V. Anandasangaree has urged British Prime Minister Tony Blair to go beyond his territory to curb terrorism by soliciting the support of the International Community to eradicate terrorism from this universe. While doing so, you may find out the excuse given by these terrorist organizations for their brutal behavior and take remedial measures to solve the problems with the support of the International Community. Proper security may be assured for those whovolunteer to give information relating to these plots. He says as the president of the Tamil United Liberation Front a moderate Tamil political party, in Sri Lanka that had lost several eminent leaders of the party due to terrorism he strongly condemns the recent bomb attacks in London.
Sangaree who is on an European tour told Blair in his letter. It is not only in London that an incident of this nature had taken place. In some countries this type of incidents have become a regular feature causing terror and tension in the minds of the people. In our country Sri Lanka over sixty five thousand, people had been killed and several thousands crippled, widowed and orphaned due to an unconventional war and terrorism. It is very strange that the International Community ignores the threat of a handful of people in each country, who hold their country at ransom. The people of the whole world cannot be left at the mercy of a handful of terrorists in each country, who thinks that they can determine the fate of the people in their respective countries. They are not realizing that the irreparable damage caused by them to the society can never be remedied by allcountries joining together.
In his letter expressing his condolences to the British people after this week’s bomb attack, the TULF leader said. The series of bomb explosions that took away the lives of several innocent people and also made hundreds to lose their limbs, eyesight etc. although comes as a great shock to all peace loving people, is no surprise to many. It is very unfortunate to see people who left their homes in the morning to attend to their day to day activities, returned home either dead or fatally wounded. It may be a matter for rejoice, for those cruel anti-social elements, over their achievements. But they do not realize that this type of incidents causes great anxiety and permanent trauma in the minds of everybody. Similar incidents can be repeated not only in the United Kingdom but in several other countries as well and the victims may sometimes be the kith and kin of those who planned this horrendous act.
http://www.island.lk/2005/07/11/news19.html
Posted in Letters, Media | No Comments »
Thursday, July 7th, 2005
Courtesy: BBC UK
The last memory Ruth Parathasangary has of her daughter was as she left home on the morning of 7 July, heading for work.
“She did not say anything when she left. She just gave me a sweet smile.”
Born in Sri Lanka, Shyanuja Parathasangary was brought to the UK in the 1970s at the age of one, when her father, Sangary, was given the chance to study in Britain.
She and her older sister Sindhu quickly adapted to their adopted country and Shyanuja followed her mother’s religion, Christianity, rather than her father’s, Hinduism.
She worshipped at the Fernhead Road Methodist Church in Paddington, west London, but was said to be tolerant and understanding of other faiths.
‘Many friends’
Living in Kensal Green, north London, Ms Parathasangary, 30, worked as an assistant buyer for the Royal Mail at offices in the centre of the city.
Known as Shaynu or Shy, Ms Parathasangary had “an outgoing personality and made many friends”, according to her parents.
She was the sweetest, most generous girl you could ever meet
Parents Sangary and Ruth Parathasangary
She could often be found on Thursday evenings enjoying the company of her friends Nell Raut and Andrea Cummings at Chiquito, a Mexican restaurant in Staples Corner, north-west London, according to the Guardian.
“It was kind of a tradition for us,” Ms Raut told the paper.
“That, and we would also go to the movies once or twice a week.”
Ms Parathasangary would laugh at pretty much anything, Ms Raut added.
‘Angelic’
She was also said to have recently bought a house with her sister, which was a source of great pride to her.
She might have avoided the 7 July attacks but for the fact she left for work later than usual because she had been feeling unwell.
She died in the blast on the number 30 bus in Tavistock Square.
“We adored our daughter. With so much to live for she paid the price of man’s wickedness to man,” her parents said in a statement.
“She was the sweetest, most generous girl you could ever meet. No-one had a bad word to say about her. She was angelic.
“We’re all devastated and can’t imagine life without her.”
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/4738107.stm
Published: 2005/08/03 11:21:05 GMT
© BBC MMVI
Attack on a double-decker bus (more…)
Posted in Family Members Killed, Statements | No Comments »
