Co-op officer abducted at Kaddaiparichchan SLA checkpoint- Elilan

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 June 2006, 00:51 GMT]
Selvarajah Gajanathan, a Tamil Co-operative Development Officer (CDO) was abducted at the Kaddaiparichchan Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Camp Thursday evening 4:00 p.m. by an unidentified person in civil clothes in the presence of SLA soldiers when he went to facilitate the transfer of relief material to Muttur east , sources in Muttur said.

Mr.S.Elilan, Trincomalee district head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), has registered a complaint with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) based in eastern port town that the distribution of dry ration relief supplied by the World Food Programme (WPF) to several thousands of internally displaced families in the Muttur east has come to a halt following the abduction.

Kaddaiparichchan army camp and its sentry point are located on the border dividing the territories controlled by the Sri Lanka Government and LTTE controlled in Muttur division in Trincomalee district.

The abduction was carried out not only to disrupt the distribution of dry rations to internally displaced but also to threaten other non-governmental organizations engaged in providing humanitarian assistance to withdraw from Muttur east, Mr.Elilan told the SLMM monitors.

Mr.K.Thurairatnasingham, Trincomalee district parliamentarian also complained to the Deputy Inspector General of Police (Eastern Region) and the Army Officer in charge of the Kaddaiparichchan army camp, and requested them to take urgent steps to trace the whereabouts of the abducted co-operative officer, sources said.

Mr.Gajanathan, working in the Department of Co-operative Development and posted to Eachchilampathu division, has been assigned to supervise the functioning of co-operative societies in the LTTE held Muttur east and Eachchilampathu divisions.

On the day of abduction, Mer Gajanathan went to the SLA camp with a driver and the manager of a co-operative society located in the Muttur east wemt to transfer a load of dry ration and other food materials brought by a lorry from the Muttur Multi- Purpose Co-operative Society (MPCS) located in the government controlled area to the LTTE controlled territory through the army check point.

Normally the driver who comes from army controlled area hands over the lorry to the driver who goes from LTTE controlled area. This transfer takes place at Kaddaiparichchan army sentry point in the presence of a co-operative officer.

On Thursday evening before this transfer takes place, an unidentified person in civil had come to the army sentry point and asked Mr.Gajanathan to come along with him. Mr.Gajanathan failed to return after following the person into the army controlled area.

The lorry parked in the army sentry point later returned with the relief materials to the Muttur MPCS without transferring the co-operative society located in the Muttur east, civil sources said.

Several thousand families in Muttur east have been displaced following shelling and artillery attacks by the Sri Lanka security forces during latter part of April, and are residing in temporary shelters. The WFP has been supplying dry rations to these families through co-operative sales outlets in Muttur east, NGO sources said.