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EMBOLDENED BY JAPANESE AID LIBERATION TIGERS OF TAMIL EELAM ONCE AGAIN USE GUNS AND THREATS TO CONTROL JAFFNA POLITICS By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles February 14,07:48 PM:The mayor of Jaffna Chellan Kandiah of the Tamil United Liberation Front(TULF) and other Municipal Councilors of Sri Lanka’s main Tamil city resigned from their posts after receiving death threats from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Jaffna political sources said. Meanwhile the suspected LTTE terrorists shot and seriously wounded another head of a local government body in the Jaffna peninsula, the Chairman of the Kopay Pradeshiya Sabha , P.Gunasingham together with his police bodyguard, Sarath Abeysinghe in an ambush. The LTTE, a Fascist political organization never elected to any local government body in its history has been controlling Jaffna politics through assassinations and threats for decades. Two mayors of Chellan Kandiah’s own political party, the Tamil United Liberation Front had been earlier assassinated by the LTTE. Mrs. Sarojini Yogeswaran, the first Mayoress of Jaffna was assassinated by LTTE gunmen, May 17 1998 and within four months the LTTE gunmen assassinated the second Jaffna Mayor to take over the post Pon Sivapalan, September 11 1998. In fact the LTTE started its politics by assassinating another Jaffna Mayor earlier than that and it is alleged that the LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran himself, pulled the trigger in that killing of Mayor Alfred Duraiyappah who belonged to another political party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. The assassinations and threats which have become a way of life for Jaffna politicians have been strengthened once again in the Sri Lanka government controlled areas in the Jaffna peninsula , where democratic political parties have been made sitting ducks under an agreement where all other political parties had been stripped of their rights to hold arms. The ceasefire agreement reached between Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran allowed only the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to hold arms while others had to handover their weapons. Emboldened by the recognition and promises of the allies of the United States like Norway and Japan of financial aid in the coming months the LTTE has been openly flouting the ceasefire agreement by murder and mayhem, the EelamPeople’s Democratic Party , which hold power in many local government bodies in Jaffna Peninsula have alleged. The Kopay local government Chairman, Poodan Gunasingham was seriously injured when suspected LTTE gunmen invaded the political office of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party at Chavakachcheri at 9 p.m. February 12, 2003 . The gunmen were waiting in ambush near the office , the Chavakachcheri Police said. Both the politician and the body guard have been admitted for treatment at the Jaffna teaching hospital. About ten other people in the office were able to save lives by ducking , the police said. An EPDP spokesman Jagan Konendran told the international monitors of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission that there were 15 members in the LTTE attack team and many were armed with T56 guns. The threats to the Municipal Councilors of Jaffna came after disagreements between the Mayor and the LTTE regarding the opening of the newly renovated Jaffna Public Library, which was destroyed by arson fire in June 1981, allegedly by a pro-UNP mob (14/01/03 go2lanka.com) |