KARUNA ORDERS THE CLOSURE OF PRABHAKARAN’S EELAM COURTS IN BATTICALOA AREA IN REJECTION OF HIS AUTHORITY
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
March 24, 07.30PM: The renegade Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) military commander Col. Karuna ordered the closure of the “Eelam judicial Court” conducted at Pattipalai, Batticaloa in a further rejection of authority by the Wanni leadership of the Tamil rebel group.
T. Chandrasekera of the island’s popular daily, the Divaina reported that the rebel of the Tamil rebel group. Karuna Amman made the order to take effect immediately from March 23 and immediately the court house was closed down and all property stored in the court as evidence material belonging to citizens of the area were handed over to the Sri Lanka government’s Kokadicholai Provincial Secretary’s office to be distributed among the owners.
Before this Karuna also ordered the Eelam Police stations to be closed down in the area. Karuna also requested the people to go and claim their properties from the Provincial Secretary’s office in Kokadicholai.
“The Eelam Courts”, political arms of the LTTE, were expected to replace the law courts of the Sri Lanka government and LTTE Supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran prohibited Tamil people in the Wanni and certain areas under the LTTE rule in the Eastern Province to refer their cases to the Sri Lanka Police. Instead, the Eelam Police , took over the police work in their areas and the cases were judged by Kangaroo Courts in favor of the LTTE organization in general
S. Pararajasingham, the legal advisor to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in an interview with the BBC’s Sinhala language service said the terrorist group’s Supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran had the power to change verdicts of the Eelam courts, intervene in the judicial process and even change the law itself as the need arose
The statement, broadcast Sunday October 5 last year , confirmed the contention of many foreign observers that the LTTE courts were only political extensions of the terrorist group, did not follow due process, did not enjoy any judicial independence at all and refused to pay attention to the rule of law. Opposition Tamil groups accused the Eelam Courts as only part of a fascist administration that totally rejected a multi-party polity that existed in the rest of the country.
In an interview with the BBC’s pro-LTTE Sandeshaya, the LTTE’s legal advisor said they would only give up the capital punishment given to its accused, mostly for political opposition and other serious crimes only after a political settlement with the Sri Lanka government. He said among 24,000 cases tried by “Eelam courts” appointed by terrorist leader Velupillai Prabhakaran only 4 had been given the capital punishment, so far.
Asked from where they derived the power to give capital punishment to their accused, after reminding him that the courts could be accused of murder under Sri Lanka’s law, the legal advisor said the power came from their political leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and said even the Sri Lankan courts derived its power from the country’s political leadership. In short, according to this description Prabhakaran was above law
Sri Lanka’s judiciary, receives its power through the people’s sovereignty deriving through the constitution of Sri Lanka. Comparatively, the LTTE believes all its power come from its Supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran .
