Sources
Sri Lankan minister killed by bomb, The Guardian, 8 January 2008; Sri Lankan minister dies in blast, BBC news, 8 January 2008

Sources
Sri Lankan Tamil MP assassinated in temple, AFP, 1 January 2008
Leading Sri Lanka Tamil MP killed, BBC, 1 January 2008

Sources
Police arrest ‘over 900 Tamils’, BBC Sinhala, 2 December 2007; Urgent Action Needed to End Abuses in Sri Lanka, Letter to Human Rights Council from Human Rights Watch, 7 December 2007.

“The Sri Lankan police conducted mass arrests of more than 1,000 Tamils, allegedly in response to the suicide bombings carried out in Colombo on 28 November. The arrests were made on arbitrary and discriminatory grounds using sweeping powers granted by emergency regulations. According to reports, “Tamils were bundled in bus loads and taken for interrogation”. More than 400 of those arrested, including 50 women, were taken to the Boosa Camp near Galle in the south, a facility reputed to be overcrowded, and lacking proper sanitation facilities and adequate drinking water.” Amnesty International Report, 2008.

Related events

On the same day, a bomb exploded near the entrance to a popular department store in a Nugegoda, a busy suburb of Colombo. At least 21 people were reported killed and over 40 injured by the blast, blamed by the Sri Lankan military on the Tamil Tigers.

In July, the LTTE celebrated 20 years of suicide bombings.

Sources
Colombo suicide bomber on videotape, The Hindu,  2 December 2007; Minister targeted in Sri Lanka suicide attack, The Guardian,  28 November 2007;  Government minister escapes suicide attack in Sri Lanka, International Herald Tribune, 28 November 2007; LTTE admits using 61 suicide bombers last year, The Hindu, 5 July 2007; LTTE staged 49 suicide attacks since July 2006, Hindustan Times, 5 July 2007; Sources
Security clampdown in Sri Lanka capital after deadly blasts: police, AFP, 28 November 2007; Twin blasts kill 17 in Sri Lanka, rebels blamed, Reuters, 28 November 2008; TNA condemns Colombo blasts, BBC Sinhala, 28 November 2007.

Quotations

“I was just about 25 to 30 feet from the suicide bomber and I am used to such attempts being made on me,” Douglas Devananda, Social Welfare Minister.

“Both attacks were by the LTTE.” Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara.

“I myself would have been caught had I was there at the time of the blast…As a politician I can’t say straight away who carried out the attacks. I strongly condemn them whoever did it.” Chandrakanth Chandranehru,Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian.

“The LTTE must stop any direct or indiscriminate attacks on civilians. They are forbidden under international humanitarian law and are never acceptable.” Irene Khan, Amnesty International Secretary General.

“The callous attacks have no political justification and serve only to add to the suffering and grief of ordinary Sri Lankans.” European Union statement.

Related events

The operation commenced in the early hours of the morning, with police and army officers visiting various lodges occupied predominantly by Tamils in Colombo and forcibly evicting them from their lodgings. It was reported that people were given less than half an hour to pack all their belongings and board buses. The evictions were directly attributed to the statement made by the IGP on 1 June 2007, claiming that Tamil people cannot remain in Colombo without a valid reason.

Sources
Ethnic cleansing claim after police move Tamils at gunpoint, The Guardian, 7 June 2007; Colombo police swoop on Tamil visitors from North-East, Hindustan Times, 7 June 2007; Sri Lankan government told to stop Tamil expulsions, Radio Netherlands, 8 June 2007.

Quotations

“Experience in the past 10 years shows that LTTE operatives use the lodges in the city to stay and plan out terrorist strikes,” Keheliya Rambukwella, Government spokesman.

“Humiliation of this magnitude ultimately points at a policy of gradual eviction of Tamils from Colombo,’ Mano Ganesan, parliamentarian and head of Civil Monitoring Commission.

“There is a sense that any Tamil can be targeted … This could escalate out of control,” Jehan Pereira, National Peace Council.

Related event
5 May 2008

“A prominent Tamil politician died in hospital after he was shot near his home in the Sri Lankan capital early Friday, a party member and a hospital official said. One of his guards was also killed. Nadaraja Raviraj, of the Tamil National Alliance was shot as he left his house in Colombo, said K. Sivajilingam, a fellow member of Parliament. Sivajilingam said that Raviraj also worked as a lawyer and was going to the court … when some people came and fired at him.” From: Tamil member of Parliament killed in Sri Lankan capital, International Herald Tribune, 10 November 2006.

Sources
Sri Lankan MP killed in Colombo, BBC, 10 November 2006; Prominent Tamil politician assassinated, Associated Press, 10 November 2006.

Nadarajah Raviraj: Assassination of an activist
In the spirit of citizen’s journalism, unionblackcolombo remembers his friend Raviraj.

Quotations

“Both sides, while talking peace, are engaged in other activities. The Sri Lankan government is involved in such activities. The LTTE is also acquiring arms and strengthening themselves. This is natural and is anticipated. The issue is how can we curtail it? If we are sincere in finding a solution to the ethnic problem by way of talks, we must sit together and thrash out the matter. After all this is a small country. The Tamil people and majority of the Sinhalese people know each other and are not communal minded. I am a person who is very close to the Sinhala people. I go for TV interviews with my broken Sinhalese not to gain political mileage – none of the Tamils watch those – but I go because I need to build an understanding with the Sinhalese and to tell them the plight of the Tamil people. If we work with a peace agenda we can definitely achieve peace,” Nadarajah Raviraj, from Begin talks without conditions, Sunday Leader, 24 September 2006.

“As a parliamentarian he worked tirelessly for the Tamil nation…He shattered the false propaganda of the Sinhala state infusing his arguments with his legal expertise. He stood firm and fought injustice in the face of threats from paramilitary violence. Mr Nadaraja Raviraj is a great man. He possessed rare characteristics. He is not the one to be pushed and pulled around for personal gains. He had a deep affection for the Tamil homeland and its people. He is an exceptional politician. He understood law and justice in its true sense. He possessed a progressive spirit and a desire to follow novel approaches. He was brave and he possessed a purity of heart. His youthful energy with all of the above stole the hearts of all who came in contact with him,” Vellupillai Prabhakaran, Leader LTTE.

“[The assassination] is one more reprehensible act by those opposed to dissent and political pluralism in a democratic society,” Mahinda Rajapakse, President of Sri Lanka

“It is government forces or forces aligned to the government, there can be no question. This is an attempt to stifle… and silence those who can justifiably espouse the Tamil cause,” R. Sampanthan, leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

“Raviraj functioned as a bridge to North and South. His murder is a challenge to people who voice for peace. Raviraj who also addressed the problems faced by the people of South, participated in many demonstrations organized on their interests. He had many Sinhala friends. He joined us in advocating the release of S.B. Disanayake. We see his loss as the same as late Vijaya Kumarathunghe,” Rajitha Senaratne, United National Party MP, Kalutura district.

Related events
5 January 2000
25 December 2005
12 August 2006
6 November 2006
6 March 2008

This event was the subject of a feature: Assassination of an activist.

Sources
Sri Lankan government clashes with Tamil rebels, The Guardian, 15 August 2006; Ketheeswaran Loganathan and the Tamil Dissidents’ Dilemma, University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), 15 August 2006; Ketheesh: Champion of Tamil Rights in United Lanka, D.B.S. Jeyaraj, Transcurrents, 18 August 2006.

Quotations

“Sinhala and Tamil nationalism have reached their respective cross-roads. They, now have to decide whether to part company or to map out a common cause leading to meaningful co-existence – that of diverse identities, as opposed to the hegemony of one identity over the other,” Kethesh Loganathan (1996), Sri Lanka: Lost Opportunities: Past Attempts at Resolving Ethnic Conflict.

“One more person capable of rising above hatred and insanity in present day Sri Lanka is no more. With his departure one more Tamil who wanted his people to live with equal rights in a united Lanka and champion that cause in the face of danger has been done away with. Only a few of us are left now.  … At the time of his death Ketheesh was Deputy Secretary-General of the Secretariat for coordinating the peace process (SCOPP) and Secretary of the All Party Representative Committee (APRC). This makes him appear as a pro-government “establishment” man. The eulogies heaped on him by the “government guys” reinforce this impression. This is perhaps the unkindest cut of all,” D.B.S. Jeyaraj, 18 August 2006.

“Kethesh Loganathan was a valued colleague, a former Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) and the first head of its Peace and Conflict Analysis Unit. He was a passionate advocate of human rights, an unflinching champion of the rights of the Tamil people and of an end to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka with democracy, justice and dignity for all. … Whilst Kethesh was an ardent and proud nationalist, he brought the same fervour, passion and commitment to the cause of unity in diversity, multi-culturalism and a settlement of the ethnic conflict based on meaningful power sharing. He uncompromisingly believed that the liberation of a people could not be founded on fear, the celebration of death, the negation or even suspension of basic democratic values. This made him a stringent and fearless critic of the LTTE for their insistence on being the sole representatives of the Tamil people and for their reliance on terror, repression and violence,” Dr. Pakiasothy Saravanamuthu, Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA), August 2006.

“Ketheeswaran was consistent in his dedication to the welfare of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. In the early 1980s which saw growing communal violence directed at Tamils it was natural for a decent left oriented Tamil with an intellectual bent to join the EPRLF, which he did. The struggle he joined was destroyed by the LTTE in 1986. After very difficult times for his people, Ketheeswaran found openings for his interests in justice and a political settlement among Colombo-based NGOs. He strongly objected to the degradation of human rights in the 2002 ceasefire agreement and on occasions was almost alone in voicing his concern over the conscription of children in the Colombo NGO fora, which Norway, the NGOs and the government wanted to downplay. Erik Solheim was quick to mark him out as an adversary. Ketheeswaran never forgot that he had been a militant. He stayed on in the EPRLF and left it only in 1994 after differences with an individual who too later left. His background enabled him to easily make the transition to activism in civil society. He was constant in his concern that other militants too should be given the means and opportunity to come out into civil and political life. He pushed for the Norwegian initiated peace process to address this cause for all militants including from the LTTE. But after the Karuna split the Norwegians pinned the label ‘paramilitary’ on all non-LTTE groups, this effort came to a standstill,” Rajan Hoole, University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), 15 August 2006.

“Kethesh Loganathan’s decision to join the Rajapakse regime’s “peace” secretariat was bewildering at the time. It still is after his assassination, presumably at the hands of the LTTE. … Kethesh’s belief that he could somehow influence what is clearly a rabidly Sinhala nationalist government – work within the system – was, at best, a miserable mistake. But we all misstep, don’t we? Only, Kethesh’s – and make no mistake about it – was an error of judgment made in the interests of peace. For he wanted, as he had all his life, to make a difference. His decision to quit the Center for Policy Alternatives was spurred, in part, by his increasing isolation within the more influential sections of the peace lobby. They think hope is spelled R-a-n-i-l. They understand peace as the absence of war. To Kethesh – no mere nationalist, but a leftist, after all – things were not so simple. He argued consistently [that] peace wasn’t synonymous with appeasing the LTTE at any cost; that the process should be inclusive – of other Tamil, Muslim and Sinhala opinion; that human and democratic rights should not be exchanged merely for an LTTE promise to stop killing Sinhalese. This made him inconvenient to sections of the peace lobby, which has made a habit of excusing LTTE massacres of Sinhala and Muslim civilians, of not protesting its systematic stifling of oppositional Tamils. And, as the UTHR(J) noted, he got marked as an opponent by the Norwegians,” Qadri Ismail, Peace Without Appeasement: Honouring Kethesh.

Related events
January 1984
April 1985
8 July 1985
17 August 1985
6 November 2006
6 March 2008

This event was the subject of a feature: Assassination of an activist.

Sources
Sri Lankan General’s Killing Points to Rebels, Peace Monitors Say, New York Times, 26 June 2006.

Quotations

“Clearly, it’s a well planned assassination and has the hallmarks of the LTTE…We hope it won’t have a disastrous effect on what remains of the cease-fire.” Thorfinnur Omarsson, spokesperson, Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM).

“The LTTE has followed a concerted effort of attempting to derail the peace efforts of the government by such acts of terrorism.” President Mahinda Rajapakse.

“Without investigations, as usual the government is blaming the LTTE.” Daya Master, LTTE spokesperson.

Related events
29 April 2005
25 December 2005
6 November 2006
10 November 2006

Related events
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24 January 2006
2 July 2006
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