Civil groups call for day of mourning for Inuvil killing

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 August 2005, 16:42 GMT]
Jaffna Civil Organizations' Consortium (JCOC) Saturday appealed to the people of Jaffna district to observe Sunday as a mourning day to coincide with the funeral of Mr.Santharoopan who was killed by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers Thursday at Inuvil, civil sources in Jaffna said.

JCOC in a statement issued Saturday condemned the killing of Mr. Santharoopan and requested the Sri Lanka Government to take immediate steps to stop deploying armed soldiers in densely populated areas in Jaffna to avoid such incidents in future.

The JCOC said earlier that speeding SLA vehicles and reckless driving by SLA personnel have killed several innocent Tamil civilians. Now the SLA is starting to blatantly kill civilians in business premises raising the spectre of SLA killings with impunity during periods of war.

The government should take urgent steps to stop such unwanted killing of civilians by its troops. People would resort to serious action if such killing continues unabated, the JCOC said in its statement.