ITRO LONDON
Connecting people for effective and efficient village recovery in the North-East of Sri Lanka
500 Sunleigh Road, Wembley, HA0 4NF, UK
Tel No: + 44 (0)20 8177 1102
4 September 2006
ABDUCTED TRO STAFF FORGOTTEN
ITRO London would like to remind the international community that 7 TRO workers are still missing 7 months after being abducted in the Government controlled Welikanda area by armed paramilitaries. To this date the investigations by the Police, Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission, and others have not even produced a report let alone an arrest or conviction regarding these missing persons.
It is this climate of impunity that has resulted in the execution type murder of 17 Action Against Hunger (ACF) aid workers (16 Tamil & 1 Muslim) in Muttur in August. The impartial Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) has ruled that these murders were a gross violation of the ceasefire by the Government of Sri Lanka Security Forces.
Whilst it is absolutely right that the international community has expressed such anger and shock at the murder of the Action Against Hunger aid-workers it has chosen to remain silent on the fate of the abducted TRO officials.
The disappeared TRO Staff are:
* Mr. Kasinathar Ganeshalingam TRO Director / PSEDC NorthEast Province Secretary (abducted 29/01/06 )
* Mr. Kathirkamar Thangarasa PSEDC Driver (abducted 29/01/06)
* Ms. Thanuskody Premini TRO Batticaloa Chief Accountant (abducted 30/01/06)
* Mr. Shanmuganathan Sujendran TRO Accountant, Childrens Home (abducted 30/01/06)
* Mr. Arulthevarasa Satheesharan Accounts Trainee, Vellavali (abducted 30/01/06)
* Mr. Kailayapillai Ravindran Accountant, Childrens Home (abducted 30/01/06)
* Mr. Thampirasa Vasantharajah Accountant, TRO Batticaloa (abducted 30/01/06)
The government's view and treatment of humanitarian workers continues to worsen with special work permits being required, in addition to work visas, for international NGO workers to work in the NorthEast. These restrictions, when combined with the embargoes on the transportation of humanitarian relief supplies, to parts of the NorthEast are disturbing to say the least. Over 200,000 persons have been displaced in recent fighting and over 400,000 tsunami and war affected internally displaced persons are still in need of assistance.
The Sri Lankan Government must allow NGOs such as TRO, whose bank accounts the Central Bank recently froze, to assist these 600,000 IDPs so an even worse humanitarian disaster can be avoided.
ITRO London appeals to international institutions, human right bodies and humanitarian organizations to make representations to the Government of Sri Lanka and intimate the importance to the "Peace Process" of the continued functioning of TRO (SL).
ITRO London is the representative and standard setting body of TRO (Sri Lanka) and its overseas offices.
Dr Soma Arunachalam President, ITRO
V Paramanathan Director, ITRO
Source: iTRO LONDON
Date: 04 September 2006
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