LTTE HAS INTENSIFIED THE KILLINGS OF POLICE INFORMERS IN VAVUNIYA DISTRICT AND THE ASSASINATIONS RISE UP TO 12
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
January 07, 10.30 PM:Police and Security Forces sources in Sri Lanka’s Northern Vavuniya District said that they had strengthened the muscle power of the check points and security barriers in the district after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had dispatched its assassination squads armed with pistols to kill police informers and members of Tamil political parties suspected of leaking information to the government.
Declaring that altogether the LTTE had killed 12 Tamils in the area on suspicion during the last eight months the police sources said, since December 30 the number killed were four people during one week.
Asked why they accused the LTTE for the killings, the sources said when all victims were police informers it was easy to determine who killed them.
The Sri Lanka government controlled Vavuniya District is adjacent to the rebel controlled areas. The rebel group thought that it was important to physically eliminate all possible Tamil elements opposing the LTTE before the next war, it was alleged.
Following a complaint made to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) a meeting between the SLMM, the security forces and the LTTE was scheduled
Day before yesterday (January 5) to discuss the alarming problem, considered a gross violation of the Ceasefire Agreement by the security forces, but it had to be postponed since it was announced that the area leader of the LTTE in Vavuniya had traveled to a distant place.
Anyway, as usual, the LTTE denied having any part in the assassinations and said such killings were continuing due to the incompetence of Police in the area.
The first killings for the week were reported when the police discovered the dead bodies of two Tamil youth at Pombaimadu area of the Vavuniya District, December 31, 2003. The murdered youths were identified as Justin Fernando (28) of Mannar Road, Nellikulam, Vavuniya and Devendran Dushanthan (18). Justin Fernando was a former member of Peoples Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE). Relatives said he had been warned and threatened by the Tamil Tigers many times prior to the assassination. The two young men had gone to Kidachoori area to collect sand driving a tractor when they met the alleged LTTE pistol gang who shot them to death.
LTTE pistol gang members also allegedly killed Sivasubramanium Ajanthan (25), January 4, 2004 while he was returning home after worshipping at a Hindu Kovil with his wife at Pattakadu in Veppan Kulam area in Vavuniya District. Police sources said the assassination took place at 10 a.m. in the morning. His wife A. Vijayamala was a witness to the assassination, police said. His body was lying at the Vavuniya base hospital pending the magisterial inquest, the Vavuniya police revealed
On the same day the LTTE gunmen allegedly took the life of another man, thought to be a Tamil, who was not identified at the time of this report was written. The assassins took his life inside a trishaw while it was running in the fifth mile post area of Pandarikulam, 3 kilometers West of Vavuniya town in the morning of January 4. Police said the body injury showed signs of a close range shooting.
