Honorable MP Mr. Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam attended a public meeting on Friday, June 3, 2023, in Maruthankerny, Jaffna. Two police officers in civil attire entered the venue and threatened Mr. Ponnabalam. Two other police officers, one wielding a rifle, in an adjacent land got into a verbal assault in degrading language with Mr. Ponnambalam.
It was reported that the situation was instigated by the failure of two police officers in civil attire to identify themselves during this meeting. The individuals’ refusal led to an argument between the crowd and the individuals. When MP Ponnambalam intervened, saying he had the parliamentary privilege and required them to show their identifications, one man managed to run away after assaulting MP Ponnambalam while the crowd apprehended the other person.
Point Pedro Police sub-inspector, Jayatissa, demanded the crowd to release the man confirming that the man apprehended by the crowd was State Intelligence Officer. The sub-inspector became verbally abusive (in Sinhala) when MP Ponnambalam requested that the apprehended man and the gun wielder be arrested. When the crowd demanded that the police identify and arrest the other individual who attacked MP Ponnambalam, the police promised to act. Instead, the police are arresting party members who managed to capture video evidence of the incident to intimidate them.
While Mr. Ponnambalam was planning to bring this up as a violation of his parliamentary privileges, the police arrested him on 7th of June 2023. They took him to Jaffna to prevent him from speaking same day in the Sri Lanka Parliament. It should be noted that Mr. Ponnambalam’s father was also assassinated for speaking up for the Tamils. Four other Tamil parliamentarians were also assassinated in the past, but no one has been arrested.
The international community must recognize that if this state-sponsored brutality against Tamil parliamentarians is condoned, one cannot imagine what the ordinary Tamils will encounter with the police. The attempted threat to the life of MP Ponnambalam was executed within a week following the unlawful removal of MP Selvarajah Kajendran, showing a pattern of escalating repression against Tamils on the island, thus violating several Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The International Council of Eelam Tamils (ICET) calls upon unequivocal international condemnation of these violence and intimidation tactics on the Tamil people. Justice will only be served if the international community, human rights organizations, and those who value democracy and human rights send a clear message that the government administration must stop violating and ignoring the rights of the Tamil people it claims to represent. The above incidents make it clear that the occupied Tamil areas forcibly subjugated the Tamils violently. It should also be noted that MP Ponnambalam and his party members were leading a protest against the illegal construction of the Buddhist temple on private lands owned by Tamils in Thaiyiddy, Jaffna peninsula.
The above events prove that the Sinhalese are above the law in Sri Lanka! The Sri Lankan government must be held accountable for their actions against Eelam Tamils.
The international community’s responsibilities:
· The international community can play a vital role in supporting Eelam Tamils affected by state terrorism. Governments and international organizations can exert diplomatic pressure on the Sinhala government,
· International human rights organizations and independent monitoring bodies can be invited to assess the human rights situation in Sri Lanka,
· The international community can provide financial, technical, and logistical support to local Tamil civil society organizations and human rights defenders who are working to protect the rights of Eelam Tamils.
· The international community can support the investigation and prosecution of perpetrators through cooperation with international criminal justice mechanisms.
· Governments and international human rights organizations can use their leverage to give political and economic pressure on Sri Lanka.
-International Council of Eelam Tamils-
