According to records of the SL Government Agent offices of Mullaiththeevu and Ki’linochchi districts, the population of Vanni was 429,059 in October 2008. The total number of people who got into SL government control after the war was 282,380, according to UN update as of 10 July 2009. “Due clarification should be made regarding what happened to 146,679 people, which is the discrepancy between the number of people who came to government controlled areas between October 2008 – May 2009 and the population reported to be in Vanni in early October 2008,” said the Catholic Bishop of Mannaar, Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph in his submission to the LLRC Saturday. The Bishop has also raised the issues of militarization, colonisation, land grab, Sihalicization, Buddhicisation and civil as well as human rights abuses that take place in the Tamil land following the war.
The Bishop of Mannar Diocese, Rt Rev Rayappu Joseph, attending the LLRC session in Mannaar
Citing the case of Rev. Fr. Jim Brown, whose case of disappearance in 2006 was part of the mandate of a previous presidential commission proved futile, the Bishop said “we must express our disappointment that previous Commissions of Inquiry have failed to establish the truth into human rights violations and extrajudicial killings they were inquiring and bring justice and relief to victims and their families.”
“Although establishing the truth is not explicitly mentioned in your mandate, we believe you will share our conviction that there can be no genuine and lasting reconciliation without truth,” the Bishop told the LLRC.
Commenting on colonisation activities the Bishop said: “There is suspicion amongst historical inhabitants in the district that these are part of a government plan to bring about demographic changes in terms of ethnic and religious composition of the districts and the Northern Province as a whole. Such efforts in the past have been a key factor that led to the conflict, war and violence and as we try to move towards reconciliation, it is crucial to learn lessons from the mistakes made in the past and not repeat such mistakes.”
While expressing his disapproval over limiting the amount of money spent on each permanent house in the North and East to 3,25,000 which is hardly enough for decent housing, the Bishop also has cautioned against possible obstacles to the Indian plan to build 50,000 houses.
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Eyewash LLRC makes even the commission members to doze off
[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 January 2011, 03:55 GMT]LLRC commission members, tired and perhaps sleepless over their own pretentious exercises, were seen dozing off during the session in Mannaar Saturday, when more than 500 gathered to give evidence and many more could not attend due to lack of space in the hall. People were waiting from 8.30 in the morning, the announced time for the session, but the commission members came only at 10.30. The hearing was over by 2.00 PM for the three AGA divisions of Musali, Naanaaddaan and Mannaar Town. 8 witnesses gave evidence and 250 remaining were asked to give their submissions in writing. Meanwhile, representative of Mannaar Tamil Association, V. S. Sivakaran, while giving evidence said that people have lost faith and are suspicious of exercises like LLRC that do not go hand in hand with political initiatives, but on the contrary coupled with more oppression.
The Bishop of Mannar Diocese, Rt Rev Rayappu Joseph, attending the LLRC session in Mannaar
After lunch, the commission had a session at Adampan between 3.30 and 5 pm for the Maanthai West AGA division.
The gathering at Adampan was many times more than that at Mannaar. The commission, visibly startled at the number, was able to give only one or two minutes each for the presentations. Yet, hundreds were asked to give submissions in writing.
The submission of the Bishop of Mannaar was the first heard by the commission between 10.30 and 11.30 at Mannaar. On behalf of the citizen committee of Mannaar, Fr. Deno and on behalf of Muslims of Mannaar, Mr M.A. Kadar gave submissions.
Mr. Cruz of Mu’l’likku’lam in Musali gave evidence on the sufferings of the people of Mu’l’likku’lam, whose entire village has become a military camp now.
Mrs Rajaputhram, the mother of a 15 year-old girl gave submission on her missing daughter, whom according to her was recruited by the LTTE, was missing at Puthumaathha’lan, but was seen later at Zone 4 internment camp.
Another lady, Mrs Gunasekaran, was giving evidence on her son, Charles Kumar, the only earning member of her family, missing on 19 Jul 2007. Her family was uprooted from Colombo in the 1983 pogrom to come to Mannaar. Her son, returning from fishing, gave that day’s earnings to her and went to Vangkaalaippaadu for a drink. The youth and a friend of him were seen being interrogated by 5 SL navy men in uniform. Both the youth are missing to this day.
The lady also gave evidence on Naval personnel abducting youths from houses after trespassing into houses and tying up their parents.
The sudden transfer of the Mannaar Government Agent is said to be the reason for the poor hall arrangements of the session. Even the Assisstant Governments of Musali, Naanaaddaan and Mannaar Town, whose divisions were attended on Saturday’s session were seen standing throughout as there was no space.
Sunday’s session will take place at Madu.
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LTTE former commander Yaan's wife witnesses on SLA war crime
[TamilNet, Monday, 10 January 2011, 06:39 GMT]Bearing witness in front of Mahinda Rajapaksa's Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) in Maanthai West in Mannaar on Sunday, Mrs R. Mironio, the wife of LTTE's former Mannaar commander Antony Rayappu alias Yaan, said she has not heared from her husband or not told of the whereabouts of him after he surrendered in front of her in SLA controlled territory in Mullaiththeevu on 18 May 2009. The surrender was facilitated by facilitated by Catholic Priest Rev. Fr. Francis Joseph, she said. The priest was also taken with her husband, but noone have heared about them, she said.
40-year-old Mironio Rayappu, the wife of former LTTE commander Yaan
Mrs Mironio said she witnessed her husband and at least 40 others were among a group of surrendees, who were taken into a bus along with Fr. Francis Joseph, whom they had approached to help facilitate the surrender. She named Velavan, Babu, Eezhavan, Ilamparithi, Kumaran and Roopan among the group.
She was moving with her husband throughout the war and on 16 May 2009, she and her children went into the SLA territory in Mullaiththeevu.
The next day, on 17 May, her husband joined her at Mullaiththeevu with others and on 18 May they surrendered within the territory of the SLA in front of her eyes, she said. Despite her repeated requests at various levels, no information was available on the whereabouts of her husband she told the LLRC urging the commission to help her locate her husband.
40-year-old Mironio said she was living with her aged parents and three children under difficult conditions in Pa'ndivirichchaan.
On Sunday the LLRC commission arrived in Madu AGA office to learn lessons from Maanthai West, 3 hours later than the scheduled time, at 12:30 p.m. and met people until 2:00 p.m. Although more than 200 people were present to witness before the commission, only twenty were allowed, including catholic priest Rev. Fr. Muralitharan, who was the first to appear before the Commission at the session.
Last year, in LLRC proceedings in Vanni, Ananthi Sasitharan, the wife of former LTTE Political Head of Trincomalee Elilan and in Jaffna, the wife of Yogaratnam Yogi, a senior member of the LTTE, Gowri Shanmuganathan, the wife of Shanmuganathan, the former official in charge of marriage wing of the Tigers and Arivumathi, the wife of Vijithan, a key person in LTTE political division had witnessed stating that they had not heared anything about their husbands, who entered SLA controlled area unarmed and were taken away by the SLA at the last stage of Vanni war in 2009.
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