Tigers killed in Paris

Danish deportee arrested in Colombo

AS the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) announced an International Awareness Week from 30 October to 5 November, two senior Tiger activists= were shot dead in the mainly immigrant district of La Chapelle in the French= capital, Paris.

Head of LTTE=92s international finance section Kandiah Perinpanathan and= editor of Paris-based pro-Tiger Tamil weekly Eelamurasu, Kandiah Gajendran, were assassinated on 26 October as they returned from a campaign meeting that opposed the forcible return of Tamil asylum-seekers.

The LTTE immediately accused the Sri Lankan government of an unprecedented attack on its leaders outside the island. In a statement issued in late= October, the Tigers say that the government has resorted to direct action after= diplomatic initiatives failed to curb LTTE international fundraising.

Foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar has spent two years trying to persuade foreign governments to curtail LTTE fundraising on their soil. Addressing= the 36th Consultative Committee of the Colombo Plan on 29 October, President Chandrika Kumaratunge again called on the international community to= consider the implications of harbouring bogus refugees and deny safe havens to the LTTE.

The Sri Lankan government has not responded to the assassination claim. Colombo=92s government-controlled newspaper The Daily News alleges the= killings were an =91inside job=92 and Perinpanathan was murdered after siphoning= massive amounts from Tiger funds for personal use. The paper says that Gajendran was present at the scene by chance and had to be eliminated as a= witness.

French police who smashed a Paris-based Sri Lankan refugee smuggling racket earlier in the month, have not released details of investigations but= reports say they are in possession of a video recording showing the assassins. Observers say= the killings will destabilise Tiger fundraising in foreign countries and may= trigger further bloodletting.

In early October, Sri Lanka=92s Permanent Representative at the United= Nations HL de Silva called for a review of the question of refugee status under the= 1951 UN Convention on Refugees. Mr Silva says that refugee communities abroad feed terrorism in their countries of origin and advocates strict surveillance of asylum-seekers in host nations.

Mr Silva=92s statement comes at a time when Western nations are continuing= to introduce tough new measures to deter asylum-seekers. In Britain, since the Asylum and Immigration Act of 1993, over 3,700 applications from Sri Lankan asylum-seekers have been rejected and only 30 applicants granted refugee status.

Many Western governments increasingly want to deport rejected asylum-seekers as a deterrant to new arrivals. The British Home Office says that in the 12= months to August, 3,627 asylum-seekers were removed from Britain or had left voluntarily. Sixteen refugees were deported to Sri Lanka from Denmark in= late September and October. Danish NGOs say a further 150 have been targeted for deportation.

In rejecting applications, governments often quote statements of= international refugee agency UNHCR. In a September report to the Australian immigration authorities, UNHCR=92s Colombo office says that allegations of harassment of Tamils are "gross exaggeration" and torture and other forms of mistreatment= are not practiced by police or security authorities in the capital.

Human rights agencies and others reject UNHCR=92s assessment. The Bishop of Rippon, David Young writing on behalf of UK churches says in a 24 October letter to British Home Secretary Michael Howard, that the disturbing pattern= of Tamil arrests and persistent claims of ill-treatment by detainees,= especially in Colombo, is alarming.

Selvaratnam Thanapalan, deported from Switzerland in July says he was= arrested by the Army in Colombo on 12 August and tortured before being released on 20 August. Student Chitra Rajendra, 18, deported from Denmark on 31 October was arrested by police on 3 November. Four Danish journalists who visited her at= the Dehiwela police station were not permitted to film or record. Another Danish deportee Kamalanathan arrested on 28 October has been convicted by court for arriving in Sri Lanka with a forged travel document and sentenced to a three-month suspended jail term.

Meanwhile, LTTE leader V Prabhakaran and intelligence chief Pottu Amman were indicted in mid-October in the Colombo High Court for the Central Bank bomb last January which killed over 80 people.

Attorney General Sarath Silva has indicated that Mr Prabhakaran will also be charged for the July train bomb in Dehiwela. Observers see these measures as= a prelude to LTTE proscription in Sri Lanka. Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman are the chief accused in the Rajiv Gandhi murder case and the LTTE remains= banned in India.

The Tamil political parties say the indictment downgrades peace efforts as= it effectively shuts out Mr Prabhakaran from being a legitimate party to any negotiations in the future. Colombo insider columnist, Taraki, says the government action is aimed at isolating and eliminating the Tiger leader, in= the misguided belief that the militant movement will collapse without its= supreme commander.

Transport minister and Democratic United National Front (DUNLF) leader Srimani Athulathmudali has critisised the Parliamentary Select Committee= (PSC) on the government=92s devolution peace package for failing to fully discuss important issues such as the system of governance. PSC deliberations are scheduled to end by 31 December and reports say no consensus has been= reached on any vital issue.
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