Sri Lanka's disappeared: Gang demands Tamil exiles pay ransom for kidnapped relatives

The government-backed Karuna Faction militia is using abduction as a fundraising tool at home and abroad. Dan McDougall reports

For some refugees, finding asylum in Britain is not the end of the nightmare, but the beginning. And no one knows this better than Tamils such as Ariyathas Pushpathas.

Ten years ago, as a 17-year-old, he fled Sri Lanka after his sister died in an air-raid. Six months ago, his brother and cousin were kidnapped in Colombo by "agents" claiming to act on behalf of the island's Karuna Faction militia, now a de-facto extension of Sri Lanka's intelligence services. And last month he was approached outside his west London church by two Sri Lankan men claiming to know the whereabouts of his kidnapped relatives. They asked him to hand over his savings or his relatives in Colombo would face further violence and intimidation.

In Colombo his family have faced similar blackmail. His terrified aunt, Maria Regina, sold her home, took a loan she could never repay and handed over $25,000. Both the kidnap victims are still missing. They are not alone. In the last year alone, hundreds have been taken, never to be seen again.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch last month released a damning report claiming the Sri Lankan government was responsible for widespread abductions and disappearances as it fights a new phase in a 25-year civil war with the Tamil Tigers. "Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa, once a rights advocate, has now led his government to become one of the world's worst perpetrators of forced disappearances," said Human Rights Watch's deputy Asia director, Elaine Pearson, in a statement launching the 241-page document.

On the streets of London, Toronto and Berlin it is well known that Sri Lanka's separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are, on a daily basis, using threats, intimidation and violence to extort millions of pounds from the estimated 800,000 Tamils living abroad. But an investigation by The Independent on Sunday in both Colombo and London has found the first evidence that Sri Lanka's government-backed militia, the Karuna Faction, are similarly extorting money from the island's far-flung diaspora.

Ariyathas said: "The Tamil Tiger fundraisers have long been a part of our lives in Britain. They turn up at Hindu Temples and community centres where Tamils meet. Many people I know have been paying direct debits into LTTE accounts for many years.

"What is happening now is very different. The Karuna Faction are kidnapping young Sri Lankan men in Colombo as a business enterprise and targeting the same diaspora the Tamil Tigers have been milking.

"The trouble is, the Karuna are now an extension of the Sri Lankan army. The question I want to know is: am I being extorted and threatened by government agents? Since I saw them outside my church they haven't returned, but I fear they know where I live."

They certainly knew where his cousin lived in the Sri Lankan capital's largest Tamil neighbourhood, Colombo 13. Arulthas Pushpathas is one of hundreds of young Tamil men who have been abducted from their homes in the city over the past 12 months.

His mother (and Ariyathas's aunt), Maria Regina, clutches a photograph of him as she sits on a broken car seat, inexplicably abandoned in the decrepit lobby of her family's short-stay lodge. She said: "They came looking for him, here at the lodge, at night, but he wasn't at home. Raids here are common; many Tamils arriving in the city stay here. They come in with torches and guns in the middle of the night. It is terrifying.

"I was worried about my son. They had taken his cousin two months before. Later that same night a neighbour saw an unmarked white van pull up and my boy was bundled in to the back. I've not seen him since."

Shortly after Arulthas was abducted, Maria received a request for a $25,000 ransom, which she paid, bankrupting herself in the process. Despite the payment, neither her son nor nephew have been handed back.

She claims they targeted her family for financial reasons, because her eldest nephew lives in the UK and the family owned a small hotel. Now homeless after selling her house in the north to raise money, she spends her days walking from army camp to detention centres pleading for his release.

One Sri Lankan MP, Mano Ganesan said: "Understand this. There are two key motivations behind the government-sponsored arbitrary arrests and abductions of young Tamil men. The initial motivation was to spread fear in the heart of a community and suppress any opposition within the capital. Now the key motivation seems to be making money and cashing in on political unrest.

"We have lists and photographs of hundreds of 'disappeared', mostly young Tamil men, and in all of the most recent cases ransoms are being demanded from their families at home and abroad, particularly in London and Toronto. This is being carried out by the Sri Lankan intelligence services and the Karuna Faction who have found a lucrative sideline in extortion."

The Karuna Faction is targeting a profitable market. Earlier this year, Amnesty International revealed that Sri Lankan families in London were paying the LTTE as much as £2,000 a year each. Tamils in Canada, Norway and France reported being approached for similar amounts. The group said Tamils who were unable to pay have been told by LTTE fundraisers to borrow the money, make a contribution by credit card, or even remortgage their homes.

For many, these sums are so huge as to be beyond reach. In a sparsely furnished flat in Streatham, south London, surrounded by faded black-and-white photographs of his childhood in Sri Lanka, sits P Ramanathan. Despite a resilience few of us could muster, he feels far from home here.

He said: "I want to go back. I'm a labourer on a building site. This is no life. But it's not safe to go back. The perception that it is a beautiful holiday island couldn't be further from the truth. As a Tamil exile I would face arrest and torture if I set foot in my homeland."

The 48-year-old from the northern Sri Lankan town of Jaffna rifles through a shoe box of belongings and pulls out a dog-eared passport picture of his younger brother S Krishnavani, nervously fingering the Kalava, the sacred Hindu red string wrapped twice around his wrist, as he does so. "My brother was taken as he came home from work late last year. One of his neighbours saw him being bundled into a white van in Colombo 12. The vehicle had no number plates.

"Four days later my parents were approached by a retired policeman claiming to represent the Karuna Faction and told to contact me in London to send money back to Colombo. My cousin in Jaffna tells me the Tamil diaspora is being targeted. The Karuna are gaining access to bank accounts and records in Colombo and focusing on Tamil families with relatives abroad."

He added: "I sent some money home, all that I could afford, but I have also been contacted here in London. At weekends I go to a Hindu temple in Wembley, west London. In May a man approached me and crushed a piece of paper in my hand. It had my brother's name on it. It told me to send £5,000 home or I will never see him again. Last week my brother's neighbour was also abducted."

The job of tracking down their potential victims in cities like London and Toronto is relatively simple. Tamils in Britain now number about 150,000, and are easily identified on the electoral roll by their surnames. The IoS has discovered half a dozen other Colombo-based Tamil families with relatives in London being extorted for ransoms.

In Britain, the Tamil Tigers are proscribed as a terrorist organisation and so banned from raising funds or holding meetings. The Sri Lankan High Commission has raised their activities with the Home Office and the Serious Organised Crime Agency, and Scotland Yard recently announced an operation aimed at investigating Tamil intimidation of British citizens. No such laws exist outlawing the Karuna Faction.

The escalating activity of the Karuna Faction – a militia once part of the LTTE movement but now firmly allied to the Sri Lankan government – has emerged as a key factor behind the upsurge in violence that has killed more than 4,000 people in the past 12 months, and left a 2002 ceasefire agreement in tatters.

The Karuna Faction was formed when the Tamil Tigers' leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, fell out with his former bodyguard and top military commander, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, better known as "Colonel Karuna", who joined forces with the Sri Lankan government.

Ironically, the leader and founder of the organisation, Col Karuna, was arrested in London late last year for carrying an apparently genuine Sri Lankan diplomatic passport issued under a false name. He is currently serving nine months in a British prison for identity fraud, and is not presently being investigated for his alleged role in extortion.

Back in west London, sitting on the floor of his dismal bedsit close to Southall Broadway, Ariyathas produces a pile of paperwork from a drawer. At the head of the most recent document from the Immigration Service at Eaton House near London, the words "Liability to Detention" glare out from the page.

He said: "I've been in Britain for 10 years but the immigration authorities are now telling me it is safe for me to go back. My sister was killed, my brother and cousin are kidnapped and my parents are separated by a front line, yet they are telling me it is safe to return. It is harder to take when you are being blackmailed in the country you escaped to in order to survive."

Source: Independent

NewsX to be available on Tata Sky from April 14

NewsX, the recently launched English News channel from the house of INX Media, will be available on the DTH platform Tata Sky from April 14.

Indrani Mukerjea, Chairperson, INX News, said, "NewsX aims to redefine TV news in India with the best news team working to deliver the highest quality of content and style in keeping with the channel's promise of Clarity in a Complex World."

Vikram Kaushik, Managing director and CEO, Tata Sky said, "We have always been at the forefront in providing world class news and entertainment and other programming to its subscribers. We are delighted to add NewsX to our platform. This will further enhance our strong bouquet for its huge community of satisfied TV viewers across the country."

NewsX, India's first HDTV-ready news channel, is the first news channel in the Asia Pacific region to use high definition cameras on the road, offering better looking footage with sharper image quality.

Source: televisionpoint.com

Army, LTTE trade charges on church

The Sri Lankan military and the LTTE on Friday accused each other of converting the Madu church premises in Mannar “into a war zone” amid the Bishop of Mannar’s disclosure that he had instructed the priests to move out of the church along with statue of “Our Lady.”

A Defence Ministry statement claimed that three surrendered LTTE cadres had confessed that three bands of the LTTE cadres known as Malthi, Radha, and Charles Anthony were presently “occupying the sacred Madu church premises.”

It said the cadres surrendered due to the “unbearable harassment” at the hands of senior cadres. They had been forcibly recruited into the armed mob called “police” of LTTE in 2007, and were deployed south of Madu after a few days of training.

In a report on its website, the LTTE alleged that the armed forces by their indiscriminate attacks were converting the Madu Church, the holy shrine of the Catholic people, into a “war zone.”

Claim on killing

A report of the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) (UTHR-J) has alleged that state security personnel are responsible for the summary executions of 17 Action Contre la Faim (ACF) aid workers in Mutur, Sri Lanka on 4 August 2006.

The 29-page report details the grisly killings, the role of senior police officials in the murders, and the government’s failure to properly investigate the crime. The case is being investigated by the Commission of Inquiry appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The government has not commented on the UTHR-J report.

Eyewitness testimony and other information received by UTHR-J reveals that the Sri Lankan aid workers were killed by a member of the Muslim Home Guards, and two police constables in the presence of the Sri Lankan Naval Special Forces around 4.30 p.m. on Friday, August 4, 2006.

Separately, the Sri Lankan embassy in Washington has urged the authorities of the State Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to take steps to prevent the screening of My daughter the terrorist, a movie on LTTE suicide bombers scheduled to be shown at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, Durham, North Carolina, on April 4, a Foreign Ministry official said.

Source: Hindu

Sri Lanka Tigers say resisting military onslaught

Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels said Thursday they were resisting a major military thrust into their territory and said they had killed at least 25 government troops in two days of fighting.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said they pushed back security forces from the Catholic pilgrim area of Madhu in the coastal district of Mannar, where heavy fighting has raged in recent weeks.

“The Sri Lanka army adamantly initiated several clashes within 1,500 metres of the church premises,” a statement said. “The LTTE defenders successfully repelled the Sri Lanka army offenders.”

The separatists added that more than 90 soldiers had been wounded, placing their own losses at one killed and three hurt over the two days.

The LTTE statement came as the military said they killed 75 rebels for the loss of three soldiers in Mannar, Vavuniya and Weli Oya on Wednesday and Tuesday.

The latest defence ministry casualty claims bring to at least 2,595 the number of rebels said to have been killed by security forces since January.

The ministry has reported losing 154 soldiers in the same period.

The figures given by both sides in the decades-old ethnic conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives cannot be independently confirmed as journalists and rights groups are barred from front-line areas.

Source: khaleejtimes.com

India requested to allow rice exports to Sri Lanka

Hit by soaring prices of rice, the Sri Lanka government has requested New Delhi to exempt the island nation from its recent curbs, including hike in rice export duties. “President Mahinda Rajapaksa is directly speaking to the governments of India, Pakistan and Burma, with the aim of importing rice from these countries. We hope there would be a positive outcome,” Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Bandula Gunawardena told IANS Thursday.

He said that immediate import of rice from these countries would help ensure availability of rice at a reasonable rate in the local market, especially on the eve of the Sinhala-Tamil New Year.

Sri Lanka has always looked to India whenever it faced a rice crisis in the local market, but it has been badly hit with the Indian government banning the exports of non-basmati rice.

A top Indian diplomatic official confirmed the request made by Colombo and said it has been passed on to New Delhi for consideration.

Gunawardena said that Myanmar has agreed to sell 100,000 metric tonnes of white rice to Sri Lanka.

“I am leading a delegation to Burma on Friday to finalise this deal,” Gunawardena said, adding that the Pakistani government has also agreed in principle to export 50,000 metric tonnes of rice to Sri Lanka.

“With these two countries conceding our request, we hope that neighbouring India would also consider our request positively,” he said.

Commerce and Consumer Affairs Ministry sources said there was an artificial shortage of rice in the local market due to hoarding and the unfavourable weather that has hindered the milling of rice.

Source: thaindian.com

LTTE accuses Army of initiating clashes

Denying that it has deployed arms around the historic Madhu Church in north-western Mannar, the LTTE has accused the Sri Lankan Army of initiating clashes within the premises of the famous Christian place of worship.

The Sri Lankan Army (SLA), it alleged, "makes false accusations" by reporting that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has deployed its guns near the 400-year-old church.

"The LTTE Operational HQ, Mannar, denies that baseless allegations and points out that LTTE has guns of enough ability to fire from quite some distance and better places to position them," the LTTE said in a statement last night.

The rebel outfit claimed it had never violated the rules of the church and "anyone with simple military knowledge would see the tactlessness of deploying guns in a public place".

The Sri Lankan military has alleged that the LTTE fired mortar bombs inside the church premises on Tuesday.

The Bishop of Mannar, Rev Rayappu Joseph, meanwhile said he had "successfully" appealed to the LTTE not to deploy arms around the Mannar church, media reports said.

He prayed for calm and peace during a function in Mannar, where Christians took out a march earlier this week to urge protection for the shrine.

The LTTE statement claimed that its forces had successfully repelled "the Sri Lankan Army advances and had found warlike materials including RPG launchers left behind by the Sri Lankan security forces".

Sources: Hindu

Nominations closed for eastern Sri Lanka elections

The nominations to contest Sri Lanka's Eastern Provincial Council election was closed on Thursday with the voting to take place on May 10, elections officials said.

Nominations were accepted from registered political parties and independent groups to contest local councils at the three different districts in the province.

Parties and groups handed in their nominations at the Election Department offices in the Batticaloa, Ampara and Trincomalee districts and the handing over period passed without any incident, defense officials said.

Some 12 political parties had handed over nominations for the Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts while 11 political parties had handed over for the Ampara district, officials said.

They said 15, 19 and 22 independent groups respectively are vying in the three districts.

Over 980,000 voters are eligible to vote, officials said.

Several applications from both political parties and independent groups were rejected in the three districts.

The Eastern Provincial Council election on May 10 will be the first such since November 1988.

The east was then part of the north and east provincial council until the two provinces came to be de-merged in late 2006 through a court order.

The two provinces came to be merged as a result of the India-Sri Lanka Peace Accord of July 1987.

Source: Xinhua

Fighting in Sri Lanka kills 32 Tamil rebels, 9 soldiers, military says

Battles, roadside bombings and mortar attacks across Sri Lanka's turbulent north killed 32 Tamil Tiger rebels and nine government soldiers, the military said Thursday.

The newly reported fighting Wednesday took place along the front lines separating government-controlled territory with the rebels' de facto state in the north, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.

The casualties brought the death toll from fighting Wednesday to 45 rebels and 10 soldiers, he said. All the soldiers were killed in roadside bombings and mortar attacks, he said.

In the worst clash, 18 rebels and seven soldiers were killed in the Mannar region, he said.

Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan did not answer calls seeking comment.

It was not possible to independently verify the military's claims because journalists are banned from the war zone. Both the government and rebels often exaggerate the other side's casualties and underreport their own.

Fighting had fallen off over the past week because of heavy rain, but appears to have escalated again in recent days.

Nanayakkara said the rebels were fiercely trying to recapture land the military had seized.

"They keep on attacking those locations ... and we repulse them," he said.

The Tamil Tigers have fought since 1983 for an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils, who have been marginalized for decades by successive governments run by ethnic Sinhalese. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.

Source: IHT

Court restrains lab from delivering prints of 'Prabhakaran'

A civil court today restrained the Gemini Colour Lab from delivering the prints of Sinhala Film 'Prabhakaran' for a week.

Admitting a suit filed by Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) President Thol Thirumavalavan, I Additional City Civil Court Judge Sethuraman ordered notices to the State Home Secretary, Director General of Police, the Union Home Secretary, Sinhala Film Producer Osmand-de-Silva and Film Director Thusara Peiris to file a counter in two weeks.

In his petition, Mr Thirumavalavan said the film contained scenes and dialogues which highly affected the Tamil diaspora. The Tamil population in Sri Lanka had been displaced and was living as refugees worldwide due to the ethnic conflict.

But the film showed the majority Sinhala population as being displaced and living in poorly maintained refugee camps in Sri Lanka. It also showed them starving, which was totally untrue, the petitioner contended.

He said the film by a Sri Lankan producer was being processed at the Gemini Colour Lab here.

The producer was dubbing the film in Tamil and other Indian languages, making sufficient number of prints for release in India, including in Tamil Nadu.

The petitoner also prayed for permanent injunction against the film. The judge then posted further hearing in the case to April eight.

Source: newkerala.com

Sri Lankan bishop appeals for peace zone near prominent Marian shrine

With Sri Lankan forces closing in on the Marian shrine of Madhu in northwestern Sri Lanka, Bishop Rayappu Joseph of Mannar, Sri Lanka, has appealed to government forces and the Tamil rebels to leave the area around the shrine a "zone of peace."

"Today as the military operations are taking place very close to the shrine, we are compelled to make an urgent appeal to both the government and the (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) to respect the Madhu shrine and (its) area as a zone of peace," Bishop Joseph said in a written appeal.

Tamil rebels had already moved into the church compound, and Sri Lankan soldiers were very close, the bishop said.

"The situation is really serious, and the shrine could be razed to the ground unless an immediate cease-fire is declared there," Bishop Joseph told Catholic News Service April 1 following his appeal.

Father Emilianuspillai Santhiapillai, the shrine's administrator, told the Asian church news agency UCA News April 1: "The whole of last night, we were awake as heavy fighting continued and shells kept falling close to the church and into the compound. ... This morning again until 11 a.m., we could hear blasts going off."

Father Santhiapillai said it had become so unsafe that the four priests, four nuns and 15 domestic helpers staying with him "made small bunkers in the sacristy so we can shelter ourselves when shells fall."

In his written appeal, Bishop Joseph urged both sides in Sri Lanka's war "to keep away from the area and to ensure that area remains completely and solely under the control of the church" and "to completely desist from using the shrine for their military and political purposes."

The Marian shrine at Madhu is one of the biggest pilgrimage centers in Sri Lanka. In mid-August, hundreds of thousands of people from across Sri Lanka obtain a special pass from the government to cross over to Madhu, which is under the control of the Tamil rebels.

In January, 18 Catholics were killed and many more injured near the shrine when a bus carrying school students, teachers and others got blasted by a claymore mine hung from a tree.

While the rebels blamed the government's "deep penetration" unit for the mine, the government accused the rebels of being responsible for the blast.

Since 1983, the Tamil rebels have been fighting for autonomy for ethnic majority Tamil areas in the north and east of Sri Lanka.

Source: catholicnews.com