Trinco Police Supdt masterminded Tamil Youth Killing says UTHR (J)
April 4th, 2006
By D.B.S. Jeyaraj
The latest report by the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) has charged that the cold – blooded killing of five Tamil youths at the Dutch bay beach in Trincomalee on January 2nd was masterminded by the Police Superintendent of the area Kapila Jayasekera.
[Execution spot]
The UTHR (J) released special report No 20 titled ” Terrorism, Counterterrorism and Challenges to Human Rights Advocacy” on April 2nd.
Among the many interesting and controversial disclosures in the report is the revelation that the Trincomalee SP Kapila Jayasekera planned the shooting incident of Jan 2nd 2006 where five Tamil youths were shot dead at point blank range at the Dutch bay beach near the Dockyard road – Fort Frederick road intersection in Trinco.
According to the UTHR report SP Jayasekera was earlier in the Special Task Force and was present at the Kanchirankuda incident in the Thirukovil area where Tamils engaged in a protest demonstration outside a STF camp were fired upon.
The report also alleges that Police Inspector Perera was directly responsible for the cold – blooded execution of five innocent Tamil youths all of whom were born in 1985.
The UTHR(J) states that this information was from sources within the security forces and states as follows -
” Based on information from within the security forces, our sources have identified Kapila Jayesekara, Superintendent of Police, Trincomalee, as having planned the outrage. Jayasekera, we learn, was earlier with the STF in Amparai, and was there during the Kanjirankuda incident in October 2002, when 7civilians were killed by STF fire (Bulletin No.29). Our contacts said that the recent executions by the STF in Trincomalee were carried out by Inspector of Police Perera.”
“Our contacts believe the STF men were inside the trishaw from which the bomb was thrown, and which subsequently went in the direction of Fort Frederick where the STF men are said to have been quartered. The police truck in which they came to commit the crime had been parked in the old police station near the post office, quite close to where the youths were killed.”
“The role of the Police at a high level is also indicated by the fact that even after the magistrate released the bodies to the parents, the Police unit at the hospital tried to prevent them, demanding that they sign a false declaration stating that their sons were Tigers. Policemen are simple persons taught to do a straightforward routine job. When they play up and do something utterly stupid, it means that they have received unprofessional orders from the top and are lost.”
“What the incident amply reveals is that Sinhalese chauvinism is very much alive within the state apparatus and there is little political will to change that. Once more we are confronted by the fact that despite hopes raised in the mid-1990s, there has been no qualitative change in the security forces. If President Rajapakse were serious about peace with dignity, a number of security officials ought to have been interdicted pending the conclusion of an inquiry. As it stands the scandal stinks to
high heaven.”
The UTHR (J) report also explains the background and context within which the incident occurred in the following manner -
“We have documented in our reports and the publication Arrogance of Power that the ‘reconquest’ of Trincomalee has been the focus of the Sinhalese extremist agenda since archaeological fraud at the highest level posited
the long lost Gokanna Vihara of the chronicles in Trincomalee (see Arrogance of Power). The tragedy of the five murdered students goes back to the desultory history of Sinhalese vigilantism unleashed in this cause, which reached terrible intensity in the mid-1980s with overt participation of the security forces.”
“Tamils in the area saw the Ports Authority employee Weerakody as a prime agent in the Sinhalese vigilantism of the mid-1980s. Weerakody, since retired, ran an iron-smith’s shop on Orr’s Hill. As part of the LTTE’s bid to provoke a re-emergence of Sinhalese vigilantism, its gun men shot Weerakody dead just outside his home about 8.00 PM on Christmas eve. The security forces reacted with the kind of alacrity not shown when Tamils are killed, cordoning off the area and conducting searches.”
“According to local reports, Weerakody’s son, who is in the Navy, vowed vengeance. On the 25th evening two Tamil trishaw drivers Vijeyaseelan and Ramanan were taken on hire outside town. Their bodies were found on the 26th morning respectively at the Kanniya – Vilgam Vihara junction and the 4th Mile Post – both places noted for vigilante action against Tamils in the mid-1980s. The following day, 27th, Sunil, a soldier on leave at home
in Sangamam 3 miles from Trincomalee was killed when a grenade was thrown into his home. We believe the killing of the students is a continuation of this phenomenon coupled with the new discretion given to the security forces for local vigilante action.”
“Commentators have pointed to the dispatch of an STF unit to Trincomalee on the orders of H.M.G.B. Kotakadeniya former DIG Police, current defence advisor and stalwart of the extremist JHU (Iqbal Athas in the Sunday Times of 8th January 2006).”.
The UTHR (J) report also recounts the brutal incident briefly. Relevant excerpts are:
“The Tamil youths – Shanmugarajah Gajendran, Lohitharaja Rohan, Thangathurai Sivanantha, Yogarajah Hemachandran and Manoharan Rajihar – all of them born in 1985 – were bona-fide students either in university or on the threshold of higher studies. They had no political connections and used to meet in the evenings on the sea front where the Gandhi statue used
to stand. Nearby was the beginning of Dockyard Road leading to a naval installation and there were a number of navy sentries in the area. The regular meeting of the students had been observed and the plan took shape.
The parties involved were the STF, Navy and the Police.”
“A full version of the incident has been given by D.B.S. Jeyaraj in
TamilWeek, with which our sources are in agreement. We received some additional details, before which we will sketch some essentials.”
“A trishaw came along Dockyard Road about 6.00 PM from which a grenade was thrown at the students, two of whom received minor injuries and fell on the ground. Soon afterwards the area was surrounded by the Navy and the STF unit arrived and the students were not allowed to leave. First they were loaded into the police truck in which the STF arrived. Then they were assaulted, thrown down, made to kneel and shot, two of them through the ear.”
“After a delay, apparently to ensure that the injured died, the victims were taken to the hospital. Immediately the cover up went into full swing, with security spokesmen and the army website, which had been a fairly credible source of violations by the LTTE, claiming that the students were killed by the explosion of a bomb in their possession.”
“How they imagined the cover-up would succeed beats one’s imagination. There was shooting and at that time a number of civilian witnesses were about. Perhaps the security men calculated that they would be too terrorised to testify. In this they have been proved largely right. Their crucial miscalculation was the courage of the Sinhalese DMO, Dr. Gamini Gunatunga, who did the post mortem examinations and testified that the 5 students named above died of gun shot wounds. The two students Yogarajah Poongulaon and Pararajasingham Kokularaj who fell down after the grenade blast were apparently left for dead and survived.”
“There was a delay of about half an hour between the arrival of the STF and the shooting of the students. Perhaps there were some misgivings and arguments about how they would get away with it.”
Meanwhile very little information is available about the progress of investigations into the incident. President Mahinda Rajapakse informed a Tamil National Alliance delegation that it had been done by pro – UNP elements within the armed forces to discredit him He also assured them that a full investigation would be made and the culprits punished.
There were media reports later that Thirteen suspects including eleven STF personnel and two regular Policemen were being detained and interrogated over the incident. There was no report of high ranking men like a SP or IP being quizzed or detained. Thereafter no reports have been forthcoming about the progress of the investigations. The TNA too has not followed up on the incident.
No action has been taken so far against the ex – DIG Police and current Defence ministry adviser HMGP Kotakadeniya who according to media reports authorised the sending of a STF Contingent into Trincomalee with instructions to “be tough”. Kotakadeniya who is also a senior vice – president of the Sinhala Buddhist ultra- nationalist Jathika Hela Urumaya has brazenly admitted to his action . He has gone on record that the act was done with the full knowledge ofDefence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapakse the brother of President Mahinda. This has not been refuted and its business as usual with Kotaka.
In a disturbing related development the family of one murdered youth has complained of sustained harassment in what is regarded as being an attempt to intimidate them. Dr and Dr. Mts. Manoharan the parents of Rajihar a youth killed on Jan 2nd have written letters to President Rajapakse, the Attorney – General, the Human rights Commission and also the UN special rapporteur on Extra – judicial , summary and arbitrary executions.
The Manoharans have said that their family is being continuously subjected to intimidatory pressure from “unknown” elements and desperately appealed for protection and an end to this harassment.
According to sources close to the family members of the armed forces, Police and alternative armed Tamil groups are responsible for the intimidatory harassment. Some of the intimidatory tactics are as follow -
Stones are thrown on the roof, the door is often banged at midnight, helmeted Tamil youths on motor cycles visit the medical clinic and make threatening remarks, threatening calls by telephone are made regularly, visitors to the house are warned not to go there again, the helper who bought provisions for the family was intimidated, the younger brothers going to school are regularly harassed by Policemen etc.
The Manoharans were the most educated of all the parents of the youth victims.They are suspected of being the “inspiration” providing strength to the others in pressing for justice. It is believed that the intimidation is partly revenge for their suspected past role and partly a tactic to terrify them into silence in the future if and when further inquiries are made.
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