Mr Perinpanayagam became Batticaloa Mayor following local elections in February 1994. He left his party TELO and joined the PA in August. PA’s local leader S Ganeshamurthy blames the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress for the killing. The police suspect the LTTE and have launched an investigation.
Batticaloa people have expressed concern over the large number of killings in the east which remain uninvestigated. Over 1,070 people disappeared after June 1990 in Batticaloa District according to the Presidential Commission on Disappearances. Other reports say over 5,000 people were arrested in the district during this period.
On 5 September, a hartal (general strike) was observed in Batticaloa to commemorate the disappearance of 174 refugees arrested by the Army at the Vantharumoolai camp in September 1990 and 184 people taken into custody in Sathurukondan and other villages. No enquiry has been held into the disappearances despite repeated requests by local and international agencies. The Army failed in its attempt to force open shops in Batticaloa town. But in Valaichenai soldiers smashed the doors and forced traders to open their shops.
Amnesty International says provisions under Emergency regulations on post-mortem and inquest procedures remain wholly inadequate for the full and impartial investigation of deaths caused by the security forces. Emergency procedures could be used to bypass normal procedure and used to cover-up illegal killings.
Civilians Poobalapillai Srikanthan and Kanagasabai Karunakaran were shot dead by the police Special Task Force at Arayampathy, south of Batticaloa town, on 12 September, when returning from a temple. The Batticaloa magistrate has urged an investigation.
The LTTE shot dead two Sinhalese farmers in Welikande on 13 September. Two soldiers and civilian Thambiyappah Ulagasekaram, 53, were killed in a Tiger attack on Army positions in Vavunativu on 11 September. Ponnambalam Kirubakaran was injured in a revenge attack by soldiers.
The Kalkudah Army camp, north of Batticaloa town came under Tiger shell fire on 12 September. A Soldiers was killed. The Army, suspecting that the shells were fired from Nasivantivu near Valaichenai, arrested 15 people working at the temple in the village. The military later denied the arrests. The following day, the LTTE attacked an Army convoy at Sunkankerni wounding four soldiers. Three policemen died and seven others were injured in a bomb attack in Kalmunai on 18 September.