Civil Society activist in East Lanka alleges “death threat by an armed group”

Siva Parameswaran

A Tamil civil society activist in Eastern Sri Lanka has been threatened with death for his comments about Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan a Rajapaksha protégé and state minister.

Wimalasena Lavakumar speaking to media persons in Batticaloa claimed a group of six people armed with guns came to his house late night on October 2nd and threatened him with death.

His house in Kiran is the native village of Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan aka Karuna Amman founder of Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) a stronghold of the party.

Lavakumar in an interview with a popular social media in mid-September had claimed “Pillayan group carried out abductions in association with the Sri Lankan Government”. 

In the same interview, he also spoke about a camp in Theevuchchenai allegedly a notorious place for torture by the Pillayan group, where many were taken to be never seen again. Among those who went missing in such a way was Dr.Ravindranath a former Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University.

Expressing fear for his life Wimalasena Lavakumar narrated his ordeal when unidentified armed men came to his house issuing a death threat.

“There were six altogether in three motorbikes. They said that I have opened my mouth about many things in Batticaloa and that I have to stop those activities immediately. “You speak about many unnecessary things,” they told me. In addition, they threatened me saying, “Theevuchchenai is a… a… hidden matter. You don’t start talking about it or going digging. You were wrong to do that. Today we came to bump you off. But first, this is a warning. Your type are the ones who force us to dust our weapons and carry them again. If you engage in such activity once more, we will definitely kill you”.

Describing those who issued a death threat to him, Lavakumar added two of them were in blue denim with coloured T-shirts and the rest four were in black dresses and spoke in the local dialect.

“The one in a blue denim and a civilian T-shirt had an AK-47 and those in the black dress had one had a T56 and an AK-47”

He further emphasized that such threats can only be made by the government intelligence or other armed groups working with the government.

“I am pretty certain that none other than state intelligence units and paramilitaries affiliated to the government are able to carry out such acts. Because, be it abductions during the past period, be it genocide, be it killings; as no proper investigation has been conducted to find out the many illegal acts committed by these and no one connected to these offences have been brought to justice and punished, they have been able to once again, freely engage in this weapons culture, death threats and abduction of people.”

Lavakumar fearing for his life warned, in the event of any danger to his life, the military intelligence agencies, state intelligence agencies and groups working with them would be responsible.

He has also lodged a complaint to the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission and to the Valachenai police about the threat to his life. 

Theeivuchchenai camp is notoriously known for the murder of seven members of the Tamil’s Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) in January 2006 which happened within two months of Mahindra Rajapaksa being elected as President for the first time in 2005. 

Media reports from the time say the TRO staff were returning to Vanni from Batticaloa when they were abducted near Welikande in a white van without license plates and apparently taken to the Theevuchenai camp and allegedly tortured and killed by the TMVP’s armed group. The only female member in the group-Thanushkodi Premini (25) was brutally raped before being executed. Even elderly persons like Kasinathan Ganeshalingam (53) were not spared. The Karuna group of which Pillayan was considered the military head was directly involved in the cold-blooded execution the media reported at that time. The killings were never inquired into and the perpetrators were brought to justice.