Murder in the mosque
TENSION gripped Batticaloa and Amparai districts in mid-May after Muslim policeman TL Badurdeen was shot dead while praying in a mosque in Akkaraipatru on 14 May. The assailant threw a grenade while escaping, injuring seven Muslims outside the mosque. On the same day, grenades were thrown at an electricity transformer near a mosque in Kalmunai, wounding another seven civilians. Observers say the attacks are a blow to reconciliation attempts by members of both Tamil and Muslim communities. The police accuse the LTTE of carrying out the attacks. In August 1990, LTTE gunmen massacred 140 Muslims inside two mosques in Kattankudy. The killings ripped the two communities apart and led to the formation of militant Muslim groups. Observers expect the relations to further deteriorate as the LTTE attempts to gain supremacy in the Eastern Province, if its forces are weakened in the Vanni. The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) called for calm in the east and derided LTTE’s claim to the visiting UN envoy Olara Otunnu that it respects humanitarian law. The LTTE has also told Mr Otunnu that there will be no obstacle for Jaffna Muslims returning to their homes. In October 1990, the Tigers expelled some 75,000 Muslims from the Northern Province who continue to suffer in refugee camps in Puttalam and Anuradhapura.
Developments in the east have shocked and disappointed northern Muslims who were seeking LTTE cooperation in their quest to return to their homes. Muslim MP R Hakkeem welcomes LTTE’s statement to Mr Otunnu, but believes the time is not yet ripe for resettlement. He says Muslims who returned to Army-held areas in Mannar are forced to submit to LTTE extortion as the sun sets and Army interrogation when the sun rises.