Trinco MPs assassinated
TULF’s agreement with the Amparai proposal may have been looked upon as a traitorous act by the LTTE, who regard the Amparai District as part of the claimed separate state of Tamil Eelam and oppose any Muslim territory.
Trincomalee MP and senior leader of the moderate Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Arunasalam Thangathurai, 61, was assassinated on 5 July in the presence of hundreds of school children.
Eye-witnesses say the killers threw a grenade and fired while Mr Thangathurai was leaving a ceremony at Srishanmuga Hindu Girls College in the heart of Trincomalee town. Two school principals and two others also died and 15 injured.
Police say that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) carried out the attack, claiming that three of the nine suspects arrested have confessed. TULF’s Trincomalee branch says that governments have failed to properly investigate political murders in the past and has called for a Presidential Commission of Enquiry into the killing. Mr Thangathurai is the eighth TULF leader to be killed since the LTTE assassinated A Amirthalingam and V Yogeswaran in July 1989.
TULF leader M Sivasithamparam declined to blame the LTTE observing that several groups have been armed by the government. But suspicion has fallen on the Tigers. The assassination was on 5 July, Black Tiger Day, annually observed since the first suicide attack was carried out by LTTE’s Captain Miller during Sri Lankan Army’s Operation Liberation in July 1987 in the Jaffna peninsula.
Mr Thangathurai had been holding talks with Muslim leaders in the east where the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) led by Rehabilitation minister MHM Ashraff is demanding a separate Muslim territory. SLMC fears Tamil hegemony in a future north-east and wants recognition of the distinct Muslim identity written into the government’s current devolution package.
Reports say the TULF had agreed to support the proposal for a separate council for Muslim majority areas of Sammanthurai, Pottuvil and Kalmunai in Amparai District. Under the proposal, the rest of Amparai will be joined with the Sinhalese-majority Polonnaruwa District thereby completely removing the Amparai District from Tamil control in any future devolution unit. The proposal also envisages one council for Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts with an overwhelming Tamil majority and having an option of joining the northern council through a referendum.
Until now all Tamil parties have demanded the continuing linking of the north and east as one unit for the purpose of devolution. The two provinces were merged under the Indo-Sri Lanka agreement of July 1987. TULF’s agreement with the Amparai proposal may have been looked upon as a traitorous act by the LTTE, who regard the Amparai District as part of the claimed separate state of Tamil Eelam and oppose any Muslim territory.
Even before the reverberations of the Thangathurai killing died down, another assassination rocked the eastern port city of Trincomalee. Muslim MP and former Shipping Deputy minister MEH Maharoof, 58, was shot dead near Uppuveli, three miles north of Trincomalee town, on 20 July. Five others travelling with him in his car, including a child, were also killed. No one has been arrested but the police have again accused the LTTE.
Mr Maharoof was scheduled to visit Irakkandy village where the LTTE abducted 32 Muslims on 2 July. The villagers are accused of handing over two Tiger cadre to the Army. Seven of the abducted were later released to the ICRC and a LTTE statement has called on Muslim leaders to intercede on behalf of the two Tigers with the Army, if the others are to be released.
LTTE’s silence over the brutal murders is viewed with consternation. London-based human rights agency Amnesty International has described the killings of MPs on the basis of their activities as a contemptible act. Amnesty has called on the LTTE to stop murder of non-combatants and cease all human rights violations. Observers say LTTE leader V Prabhakaran has declared in a statement that people who betray the liberation struggle and the concept of a Tamil homeland must receive the punishment they deserve.
The murder of the Trincomalee MPs has sent shock waves through the northern Muslim community, currently living in refugee camps in Puttalam, Anuradhapura and Kurunegala districts. Around 100,000 Muslims were driven out of the Northern Province by a LTTE ultimatum in October 1990.
After seven years of suffering in refugee camps, northern Muslims are desperate to return home, particularly in view of tensions with local communities in the three districts. Muslim businessmen are worried over Jaffna Municipal Commissioner’s notice announcing his intention to cancel lease agreements of shops in Jaffna town.
The Army wants Jaffna Muslims to return and assures security and rehabilitation facilities will be provided. But the Muslims are concerned over security and reluctant to return without safety guarantees from the LTTE.
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