2ND LEAD

SLA suspected in slaying Jaffna youth while ex AG defends crimes as normal

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 April 2012, 01:14 GMT]
Sri Lankan military intelligence resorts to liquidate Tamil youths it suspect by using different means in recent times, human rights activists in Jaffna said, citing a brutal killing that took place on Tuesday this week at Vathiri Junction of Nelliyadi in Vadamaraadchi. The killer squad followed 28-year-old Sivarooban Sivagnanam, who had returned from Qatar six months ago when he was on his way to Manthikai hospital from his house in Koththiya-kaadu in Tho'ndaimaanaa'ru, taking food to his hospitalised father. The squad that followed Sivaraoopan in motorbike, knifed him to death in broad daylight near a Sri Lanka Army camp located near the Vathiri junction, residents said.

The pattern of the killer squads nowadays is to use swords and knives so that it will look as acts of ‘normal crimes’. The squads avoid deploying guns.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's former Attorney General and present advisor to the SL cabinet, Mohan Peiris, who was also a key member of SL government's delegation to Geneva in March was cited saying two weeks back that the return of criminal activity to Jaffna is a sign that things are back to normal.

The incident on Tuesday also shows the monitoring carried out by SL military intelligence on people coming back from abroad.

The killing comes in the wake of a youth, 18-year-old Sivalingam Sivakumaran, a student from Kerudaavil village in Vadamaraadchi North of Jaffna district, who was reported missing since 13 April, was found slain inside a bush on 18 April, 2 km away from his house.

Giving an interview to Colombo media Lakbimanews on 12 April, Sri Lanka's former Attorney General Mohan Peiris came out with the following observation on crimes in Jaffna:

"For 29 years there was no crime in Jaffna because it was heavily militarized and there was no room for criminal activity by civilians. The indication that there is criminal activity is indicative of the restoration of peace. The amateur robber, the thief is back at work. The pickpocket is back at work, there are rapes, murders. In other words, civilian misdemeanours inclusive of criminal wrongs are taking place. The extra security that Jaffna has enjoyed to make it a sterile place today is no longer there. In other words, there is a complete restoration of civil life and behaviour of civilians includes criminal behaviour which was hitherto suppressed because of regimentation. That is for the community to set up its own mechanisms and the local police to deal with like in any other part of the country. Today Jaffna is like any other part of the country where people are living, laughing and dying."

The former Attorney General, like he defends the genocide carried out by the Sinhala state in the international forums, sets stage for getting excuses to the criminality of the occupying military, civil activists in Jaffna said.

Chronology: