Rumors of a Bomb in a Negombo School.

2006.06.20

Rumors of a Bomb in a Negombo School.

Thousands of parents gathered to St. Peters college grounds in Negombo having heard the news that a bomb had been spotted in or near the school. The police and navy came and checked everything and finally concluded that that was only a rumor. However the parents did not believe this and had shouted for their children to be released from school so they could take them home. Finally the Principle allowed the parents to take their children home.

In the large gathering some parents has told if anything happen to St. Peters then they should the same to the Vijayarathnam school which is the largest Tamil college in Negombo.

Such bad tension is prevailing here. There are many rumors related to the schools flays around I feel the some media should responsible on this since they wrote a lead news on this after Kabithigollawa.

Two Sinhala Fishermen are in Taken Into Custody

P. Sunil (aged 46) and P. Shirantha (23) went fishing last Friday (2006.06.16 ) as usual. They put their nets for catching fish near to the Colombo Port area. The following day (2006.06.17) they went in the early morning to collect the nets, which is one of the normal fishing method of fishermen here in Negombo. They use a satellite to locate the place where they put net.

On the 17th June the Pamunugama incident happened. According to the Police, suspected LTTE sea tigers were arrested and several bombs were found. On the same day P. Sunil and .P Shirantha were catching fish around 8am when they were arrested. No one knows what happen to them. The owner of the boat, also a relative of the fishermen, went out to sea to look for them. On the same evening they were told by fishermen in the area that 2 fishermen had been arrested.

On Sunday Suranga who is the owner of the boat went to Colombo to try and find Sunil and Shrianataha but he couldn’t found. He searched until that evening and went around many police station. Yet no one has given him any information as to the where abouts of the 2 fishermen. Finally he got to know that they were in the custody of TID in Kolpity, Colombo 3.

However Suranga was not allowed to visit them and was told to come back on Monday. So on 19th June they went to visit them but had no chance to really talk; just a few words. They are only allowed to visit them on Saturdays.

Shirantha has three year child and his wife is pregnant and she has had no chance to see his husband since last Saturday.

A Terrible week in Negombo!

Sunday 2006.06.16

Sunday 1.20pm Many arrested in Negombo, including a 70 year old man with high blood pressure.

I got a phone call from Sudarshana a human Right lawyer, around 1.20pm, saying some one from Negombo had called him to ask his help. His father had been arrested

Then immediately went to the Negombo police station. The time was around 5 pm.
Around 20 Tamils had been arrested including very old sick man, a father of three children , All were arrested on suspicion for not having identity cards (IDs), or for simply having IDs registered in Jaffna.

That father is a development worker in a Wattle project , and lives in Ja-ela. His son works in YMCA and I have met him before. I met him again at the police station and he was so upset, especially because of his father’s health situation. And he also told me a lot about the dignity of such a old person.

No officer at the police station was there to talk to us about his condition and his father had not eaten since his arrest. He was so upset for having such a unprecedented thing happen to him. We were at the police since from morning until nearly mid night when finally the old man was released.

A letter from Freddy

Dear Olwen,

Really thanks , I could only able to read your mail around 10 pm June 06 th . That was the time I cloud able to sit to read mails though I was in and out for the hole day for very important reason.
I was really disappointed having the experiences around injustices and very few even care those who try do some work for justice.

Just I want to share my day………

Yesterday, June 05th 2006, we received news about a girl who had died, that morning, in the Negombo prison due to asthma.

Sugandhini, aged 26, from Jaffna, was a Tamil and had been on her way to Europe when she was deported from Amman, Jordan, back to Sri lanka on the 31st January 2006. Since then she had been in the Negombo prison together with another 400 detainees being held on similar cases.

Sugandhini had suffered from asthma for a long time, according to her relatives so her parents had tried several times to get bail but each time it was rejected. Earlier morning on June 5th, according to her friends, she was in her prison cell screaming and begging for help. She continued for nearly 3 hours, her two cell mates also made knocking noises on the cell windows yet no officer came.

Then finally around 4.20 am she was admitted to the Negombo hospital but according to the doctors there they said it was too late, they couldn’t do anything, she was pronounced dead.

Sugandhini’s mother and here relatives came from Jaffna this morning for the postmortem. It’s really sad that none of her relatives could speak The Sinhala language and the doctor couldn’t speak Tamil. But still there must be an inquiry. It was really good that I and our Tamil edition coordinator were available and volunteered to translate.

After the postmortem the body was brought to a funeral parlor in Negombo town and around 10pm was taken to Jaffna.

Since 10am we were fully engaged on this issue.

We actually hear, in the funeral parlor, that some RS 25000 had been given in bribes for the officers from the police to the prison. This was according to the relatives. As a Sinhalese I really felt ashamed and just can not believe how these persons can do such inhuman practices to such people.

According to them the payments were, for the special vehicle to transport the body to Jaffna RS 30,000.00, for the funeral palor RS 45000.00 but then bribes of RS 25,000.00

What a world?

I was just thinking whether I should share some very personal things ….. During the course of all these journeys today my motor bike stopped. It had run out of petrol. I had only RS 40 in my pocket which is not enough to fill the tank with petrol. Then Sahajan, our Muslim friend and the coordinator of our Tamil newspaper, offered some money which solved the problem.

During the day there had been no time to even have lunch but around 4pm we went to a Muslim hotel, in the Muslim area of Negombo, just to have tea. We then saw a few people reading our Tamil news paper. Our friend approach the people reading the paper and asked about the paper not saying that we had any link with it. They said they very mush appreciated it and even directed us where to buy one. We went to the shop they directed us to but no more papers! All were sold.

Then with all these feeling and tiredness sat on the chair in front of the computer to read emails then I so your mail.

That’s why in the very beginning that I wrote Really thanks.

I feel free now, the time is 4 am on June 7th .

In solidarity

Freddy

THE RETURN OF TERROR ?

People who live on the banks of the Hamilton Canal near the Canal View Hotel on Anderson Road in Periyamulla,Negombo say that they heard gun shots at about 1.30 a.m. in the early hours of the morning of May 22, 2006.

When light fell, the villagers saw the body of a young woman lying on the canal edge. She seemed to be about 20 years old. Her hands were tied behind her back with black cloth and she was gagged with black cloth as well.

There was a gun shot wound on one side of her neck. The shot that seemed to be from a 9 mm. gun had exited from the other side of her neck.

One villager commented that this situation reminded him of the days of 1989.

Up to the time of writing we do not have any idea as to who this young woman is, or to which ethnic group she belongs.

Yet both villagers and Police officers at the spot were not slow to identify her as a Tamil and as a ‘Tiger’.

It is clear that for some time now that there is an orchestrated campaign of assassination going on in the south of the island.

The headless dead bodies that turned up in public spaces were one manifestation of this phenomenon.

This act of tying a person’s hands behind their back, shooting them within hearing of others and then leaving the body on the wayside is another manifestation of the same phenomenon.

Whoever it is who is being killed in this manner, what we should remember is that this heralds the start of yet another Reign of Terror.

At a time when more than any other thing, we seek the meaning and sanctity of life, we are instead being sent the gift of death.

If we do not take a stand against these killings now, the day when death dangles before us is not far away.

The death maybe that of a Sinhala, a Tamil or a Muslim.

This is why we should take a stand against killing and death.