LONDON’S LTTE ORGAN PROTESTS AGAINST STEPPED UP SECURITY CHECKS AFTER SUNIL THABREW ASSASINATION BY A TIGER GUN MAN
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
July 02.07.30AM:The London based organ of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) protested against stepped up security operations by the armed services and the Police following the assassination of Sunil Thabrew, the intelligence branch chief of the Dehiwela Police who was killed allegedly by a LTTE gunman in his own police station premises.
The LTTE organ, the Tamil Guardian charged, “For over a week, Sri Lankan soldiers and policemen, including troops from the notorious Special Task Force, cordoned off Tamil areas, forced their way into homes and businesses and took men and women, especially youths, into custody.”
The Tamil Guardian complained, “The operations peaked on the weekend, with six hundred people being arrested on Saturday and another three hundred on Sunday. The government has justified its security drive as necessary to re-impose law and order on the Sri Lankan capital peaked on the weekend, with six hundred people being arrested on Saturday(June 28) and another three hundred on Sunday (June 29). “
The Police actually started its cordon and search operations after it was revealed that the LTTE had infiltrated hundreds of its armed cadres and suicide bombers making use of the lifting of the security barriers by the Ranil Wickremesinghe government after reaching the ceasefire agreement with Tamil Tiger supreme Velupillai Prabhakaran.
The Tamil Tiger organ also protested: “Meanwhile senior government officials have publicly decried their inability to use the notorious Emergency Regulations and Prevention of Terrorism Acts - hardly the instruments to tackle rising crime.”
In the past the LTTE had mingled with the civilians to commit its many terrorist activities necessitating the security forces to do cordon and search operations to prevent them. Exploding bombs in the midst of civilian gatherings like in the Pettah bus station and exploding state buildings like the Central bank to paralyze the government were example of some of the terrorist acts it performed hiding behind innocent Tamil civilians.
While using kid gloves on the UNF government and attacking the country’s security forces to force stop its investigations the LTTE organ said, “It may be argued
that the United National Front government is just doing what any good government must: trying to restore law and order. But by letting its Sinhala military off the leash, the government has sent shockwaves through the Tamil community at a particularly sensitive time. Most importantly, Colombo's show of force is perceived as unashamed grandstanding for the benefit of the Sinhala rightwing.”
But the editorial of the LTTE organ, July 2, questioned the security checks of law enforcement forces: “. Be it the residents of Jaffna facing increasingly aggressive questioning on their streets, Tamil fishermen across the Northeast whose boats are repeatedly searched and damaged or the civilians of the east who contend with increased 'security checks', the level of tension is on the rise.”
