[Marxism] White van abductions and Sri Lanka's terror regime

[Stuart Munckton <stuartmunckton@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/796/41008
White van abductions and Sri Lanka’s terror regime
Carla Lee, Colombo
23 May 2009


*“Soldiers, our race salutes you!” state the Sinhala-language slogans on
huge placards plastered across Sri Lanka’s countryside. *

 Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrematunge, the widow of murdered Sri Lankan
journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge, revealed this bizarre slogan in a
statement read out by Lasantha’s niece at the UNESCO World Press Freedom
award ceremony in Doha on May 3.

Lasantha is the second journalist to be honored posthumously since the prize
was created 12 years ago.

“Not ‘the people’, not ‘the country’, but the race”, Sonali said,
highlighting the true nature of Sri Lanka’s war on the Tamil people.

Indeed, Sri Lanka is in a patriotic and militarist mood. In Colombo, the
national flag (which features the Sinhala symbol of a lion) is being waved
on top of three wheelers — the popular vehicle in South Asia.

Militarisation

Walking around the city is difficult as it is dominated by the large number
of checkpoints and intense security measures.

The large majority of the media are busy telling a triumphant story of the
Sri Lankan Army — whose soldiers are now undisputable heroes in Colombo and
the island’s Sinhala-dominated south.

There are other heroes, like the “Rajapaksa brothers” — President Mahinda
Rajapaksa and defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Sri Lanka’s government and military have been about to claim full victory in
the war “within days” for months now.

It may not be accidental that in this macho, militarised atmosphere, this
writer experienced sexual harassment on the streets of the sort missing from
previous visits to this charming country.

However, a bigger problem on the streets is abductions.

Sri Lanka’s notorious abductions are being conducted by Criminal
Investigation Division (CID) officers — always in a white van.

Abducted

“I have no guarantee for my life”, sobbed Lackshman (names changed), a Tamil
university graduate in his late 20s. “They will finish me off if I do not
listen to their words.”

Lackshman had torture marks all over his body. He was lucky to be spared his
life by his abductors, unlike many others who never returned home.

But he was warned to get out of Colombo “within days”.

Lackshman left Jaffna, the largely Tamil capital of the island’s Northern
Province, out of fear in 2005. Many of his friends had been shot dead by
unknown persons.

He’s been working since in Colombo, in a shop affiliated with a Tamil
political party.

In April 2008, police arrested him outside the shop.

“The police, who had come to arrest the boys in adjoining shop, arrested me
too”, Lackshman said. He was held without charge for two months then
released by court order.

During the detention, he was severely assaulted by police. When released,
they warned him: “You can’t escape us. We know where you are working. We
will be watching you.”

Lackshman knew his ordeal was to be repeated when he received a letter from
an anonymous group that read: “You’re from Jaffna. Why did you come to
Colombo? Get out of your place or you will be punished.”

The group claimed to be “in charge of evicting traitors”.

Lackshman received a second letter from the same group near the end of last
year. This time, a deadline for his leaving Colombo was set to a specific
day.

“One day in February, I came out of my place for dinner around 9pm. Some
Special Task Forces personnel called me over. They pushed me into a vehicle
and put a mask on my face.”

He was transferred twice during the journey of more than 10 hours. On the
second transfer, he was handed over to a group who spoke perfect Tamil.

He was severely tortured by electrical equipment, leaving burns all over his
body.

“I appealing to them for one more chance to live. They said it’s up to
higher officials.

“Finally, they told me they would give me a chance.”

The abductors dumped Lackshman on the outskirts of Colombo and told him to
get out of Colombo within days or “be punished”.

White van’s ‘freedom of movement’

During the journey, he said, none of the numerous checkpoints stopped his
abductors’ vehicle.

The “abduction squad”, apparently comprised of security forces, police and
Tamil paramilitary groups, might be the only ones who can enjoy freedom of
movement in Colombo or elsewhere on the island.

Independent Tamil MP Mano Ganesan said: “That is what we call systematical
abduction to eliminate Tamils. As you can see, checkpoints are everywhere.

“But I have never heard of any white van stopped or abductors arrested.

“Isn’t it clear that the abductions are carried out with the connivance of
the authorities?”

Ganesan has received non-stop threats from various groups. His friend,
Jaffna MP Nadaraja Raviraj, was assassinated two months after the pair
launched the Civil Monitoring Commission of Abduction in late 2006.

Lal Wikrematunga, chairperson of the respected Sunday Leader said: “There is
general understanding as to who abductors are. That’s why people are too
scared to talk. That’s why none of the cases has been solved.

“It is very visible. But if you give others any information about abductors,
then you’re under threat.”

US-based Human Rights Watch said more than 1500 people went missing between
2005 and 2007, including more than 1000 in 2006 alone.

In its annual report of 2008, HRW highlighted 43 reported cases in Vavuniya
in August alone, adding “many cases are not reported due to fear of
reprisal”.

The Civil Monitoring Commission of Abduction, a local rights body, estimates
the numbers as far higher. It says more than 400 people have gone missing in
Colombo since the Rajapaksa government came to power in November 2005.

However, more than 4000 have gone missing in the Tamil-dominated north and
east of Sri Lanka during the same period. The missing are mainly Tamil.

Tamils targeted

Ganeshan said that as part of the peace process, between 2002 and 2005 the
LTTE was allowed to open political offices in government-held areas. The aim
was to transform the guerrilla rebel group, fighting for an independent
Tamil state, into a political party.

These offices organised various open political events in the north and east.
Such events, legal at the time, were filmed.

“We found that many people who participated in such programs have since been
disappeared”, Ganesan said.

Sure enough, Lackshman revealed he took part in an LTTE-organised event in
late 2002. He travelled with 50 others to cross the Muhamalai check point to
go to Vanni, then the LTTE-controlled heartland in the north.

At the checkpoint, the SLA stopped them to take photographs and film them
before allowing them to go on.

As violence spread from 2005 on, the LTTE political offices were closed
down, and civilians who took part in any of its programs largely remained in
government-held areas.

Some moved to Colombo to avoid violence. Yet Colombo is not a “safety zone”
either for Tamils.

Although intimidation by the state is a threat to the whole population, it
is conducted in the most direct and humiliating way against Tamils.

Under the pretext of supposed LTTE infiltration, the government introduced a
measure forcing all Tamils in Colombo, whether they have lived there for
decades or were visiting for a few days, to register at a police station.

They must provide personal details, including bank accounts.

It is believed that the abduction squad obtains this information, including
knowing where their targets originally came from — as Lackshman’s letter
indicated.

It is also believed the squad has used such information to abduct Tamil
businesspeople for ransom.

A Tamil woman, weeping in a dark room in the outskirts of Colombo while
breast-feeding her two-year-old girl whose father is missing, said: “I’m
very scared when security forces came into my house for search. I don’t
understand Sinhalese.

“I have three daughters. My husband has been missing since January 10, 2007.
He was taken by CID officers nearby my house according to my neighbours.”

Military solution to a political problem

>From the government-declared “safety zone”, to the barbed wired-detention
camps, from the isolated Jaffna peninsula and paramilitary-dominated Eastern
Province to Colombo, nowhere is safe for the Tamil minority on this island.

As the case of 25-year-old Tamil man Sampanthan (name changed) shows, people
have just disappeared without a trace.

Sampanthan was arrested by police in Colombo in early 2008. He was preparing
to go to Malaysia for work.

But he didn’t have his passport with him when questioned by police, who
suspected him of involvement with the LTTE. He was held for three months
without charge.

He was released by court order when his family had submitted all relevant
documents, including his passport.

But police didn’t return his passport when he was released.

Sampanthan's brother Eehai (name changed) said: “My brother went to the
police station twice to ask his passport back, but failed.

“On May 10, 2008, minutes after I spoke to him on the phone, witnesses said
he was taken into a white van by three people in civil clothes who
introduced themselves as CID officers.”

The following day, CID men took all of his brother’s documents from his
home.

Asked if he ever tried to approach a CID office about his brother, Eehai
exclaimed: “You know I am a Tamil youth. How can I?”

As the government ruthlessly crushes the Tamil Tigers, who had been
appealing for a ceasefire, Tamils in Colombo are uneasy, feeling they will
be more marganalised than ever.

One Tamil activist in Colombo observed: “What a defeat of the LTTE in this
circumstance means is that a political solution, which is fundamentally
needed to solve the conflict, will be further away.

A Sinhalese activist in Colombo pointed out: “The LTTE is about 30 years
old. The roots of the conflict go back 60 years. We need to address roots
and causes. Yet a military solution is being attempted to solve a political
problem.”

From: International News, Green Left Weekly issue
#796<http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2009/796>27 May 2009.

-- 
"The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of
dummy?" — Jarvis Cocker

"The basis of optimism is sheer terror" — Oscar Wilde
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