TNA MP seeks release of 765 LTTE suspects

COLOMBO: P Ariyanethiran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP for the Eastern Sri Lankan district of Batticaloa, has written to President Mahinda Rajapaksa asking him to release 765 Tamil young men and women who are kept in various prisons in the island for suspected links with the LTTE.

The MP pleaded that since the war ended on May 19, 2009, and it was time the suspects (against whom there were no criminal cases) were released.

He pointed out that among the detainees were 50 women and five children. These detainees are apart from an estimated 8,000 LTTE suspects kept in special camps in the North. These are alleged to be LTTE fighters who had surrendered to the security forces during the last phase of Eelam War 1V.

HARD CORE TIGERS: The Minister for Prisons and Rehabilitation, D E W Gunasekara, told the BBC recently, that of the 11,000, who had surrendered, 3,000 were released last year itself. Among those still in, are 1,300 women and 600 women classified as “hardcore fighters,” he said.

Rehabilitation officials say that these detainees have been allowed to see their family members periodically. A section of them have been given training in various trades and a few have been given jobs in the garment sector. The forces have also helped some Tiger couples undergo a formal marriage ceremony and officially register them.

According to a recent report of the University Teachers for Human Rights-Jaffna (UTHRJ) about 25 per cent of the detainees in these special camps are inaccessible to outsiders, including family members.

Top leaders who surrendered: The UTHR-J report says that among the top leaders who surrendered between May 16 and 19, 2009 were: V Balakumar (LTTE ideologue); Karikalan (former eastern province political wing leader and subsequently incharge of the economic division); Yogaratnam Yogi, (a former spokesman of the LTTE); Lawrence Tilagar (a former spokesman of the LTTE, and one time head of the LTTE office in Paris and later in-charge of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation); Thangan (former Deputy political section leader); Ilamparithi (former head of the political section for Jaffna district); Poovannan (former head of the administrative division of the LTTE); Gnanam (deputy international head); and Tamilini, head of the Women’s political wing.

Recently, when Minister Gunasekara visited Jaffna, the wives of Balakumar and Yogi had met him and wanted assistance to live.

Asked by the media if Balakumar and Yogi were alive, Gunasekaran said that he had no information on that.