The first case involves Mr. Samithamby Sellathurai a 38-year-old farmer living in Kalkuda, which at present falls under the areas controlled by the GOSL. From the time of signing of the MOU when the LTTE was given access to this region for “Political Work” Mr.Sellathurai has been at the receiving end of harassment by the local head of the LTTE Financial Division Mr. Anbinian. He was forced to part away with money on 4 different occasions including the last time on the 11th of January of 2003 when Mr. Anbinian demanded a sum of 2 Lakhs of rupees. After initial refusals Mr.Sellathurai succumbed to the demands and paid up the total amount of money demanded from him.

In spite of the payment a group led by Mr. Anbinian visited the Sellathurai household on the 14th of January for the purpose of recruiting his son Chrisitie a 14-year-old boy for the LTTE. When one of the men who was in Mr. Anbinian’s group physically grabbed the boy Mr.Sellathurai resisted the advances of the LTTE men and the resultant yelling and screaming attracted the attention of close by neighbors and relatives. When confronted with the crowd Mr.Anbinian is reported to have threatened Mr. Sellathurai and withdrawn with his men.

On the following day our sources report that Mr. Anbinian had visited Mr.Sellathurai house again and demanded his tractor (No 27-1112) which was promptly declined after which Mr. Sellathurai was severely beaten up and the tractor driven away by the LTTE group that accompanied Mr. Anbinian. As a result of this altercation and the resultant mental agony Mr. Sellathurai attempted to commit suicide by swallowing pesticide and is presently in critical condition at the Batticaloa government hospital. Incensed by the turn of events and the predicament of Mr. Sellathurai and his family the local villagers had gathered around the local LTTE office and the man in charge was saved only by the intervention of the Sri Lankan Army!

The second case of harassment involves Mr. Kumarasamy Pathmanathan a young man of 22 years who belongs to the artillery unit of the LTTE. Reportedly he was quite unhappy with his tenure with the LTTE unit and refused to return for “duty” following his visit to his parents. An LTTE party led by the local leader “Gadaffi” is reported to have visited Mr.Pathmanathans house several times to accompany him back to his unit. Upon continued refusal and resistance Mr. Path was severely beaten up by Mr.Gaddafi’s group and Mr. Pathmanathan consumed Cyanide and was admitted to the Batticaloa hospital at around 8pm on the 11th of January. On recovery he was visited this time by Special commander Ramesh who attempted to remove him back to his unit. When the Sri Lankan Police intervened and prevented the removal of Mr. Pathmanathan on the 14th of January Mr. Ramesh is reported to have exclaimed that he would “get him back” within a few days.

According to local sources Pathmanathan wanted to seek the protection of the SLMM. These sources said that the family, which had other children, was subjected to pressure from the LTTE. Furthermore according to these sources Mr. Sinnaiah the LTTE representative on the SLMM’s local monitoring committee advised the parents to ask the Police to hand over Pathmanathan to them, presumably giving them hope that he would sort out the problem with the LTTE. When Pathmanathan was sufficiently fit enough to travel he was taken by the Sri Lankan Police to the area Magistrate, who on a request by his mother handed over Pathmanathan to her. According to the same sources in Batticaloa the mother was taking Pathmanathan home in an auto rickshaw accompanied by Mr. Sinnaiah when she noticed that the auto rickshaw was followed by another one with an LTTE party under the political leader Mr. Senathy. The second auto which over took the first carrying Mr. Pathmanathan is reported to have abducted Mr. Pathmanathan and spirited him away to a base in Tharavai. No reports of the where abouts of Mr.Pathmanathan are available to us. Published: Sun Jan 19 20:53:40 EST 2003