UTHR (Jaffna) and its activities | An old news as a proof for future reference

We the members of the teaching staff of the University of Jaffna wish to express our anger and resentment at the reports published by the so called University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) regarding the recent happenings in the Jaffna peninsula.

The information contained in these reports are based on hearsay and authenticity of the sources from which they are supposed to have been obtained is open to question. The information does not give a true or complete picture of the events preceding and following the exodus of people from the Valigamam and Jaffnatown areas of the peninsula and seems to be intended to serve only one goal, namely to discredit the LTTE.

The authors of these reports under the pseudonym UTHR (Jaffna) with a view to winning respect and credibility from its readers by misleading them into believing that the Jaffna University Teachers are associated with their reports.

We wish to deny categorically, once again, that any teachers of the University of Jaffna other than these two ex-staff members are in any way connected directly or indirectly with this organisation called UTHR (Jaffna) and we challenge the organisation to disprove our assertion.

The authors of the report have not even visited the North ever since they ceased to be members of the University staff five years ago. They have taken up residence in an area outside the theatre of war and have no first hand knowledge of the conditions here. Whatever they publish has to be based on information supplied to them either by the government or the people travelling to Colombo from the North and such information and the inferences the authors have made from them are highly selective and suited to their goal of vilification of the LTTE.

The people living in the North, including ourselves, have suffered infinitely more hardships due to military action by the Sri Lankan security forces and the oppressive administrative actions of the Sri Lankan government than due to any human rights violations of the LTTE. Hundreds of civilians have been killed in a gruesome manner and thousands have suffered serious injuries as a result to the indiscriminate artillery shelling and aerial bombing of thickly populated civilian areas by the security forces.

A large number of houses have also been completely damaged due to the same reasons. Under these circumstances the people living in the war torn area needed no encouragement or coercion from the LTTE or any other sources to leave the area and seek shelter elsewhere when there was a sudden worsening of the security situation. In fact, people who valued their lives more than their properties quickly sought shelter elsewhere as they did during the previous military operations in the peninsula, the islands a nd the eastern province. Heavier civilian casualties were avoided not because of the sympathy and concern shown by the security forces to the safety of civilians but due to the timely evacuation of the civilians from the area of conflict. Perhaps the authors of the report are not aware that people are still leaving the Vadamaratchchi due to intense artillery shelling which has claimed more than fifteen lives during the last two months and caused serious injuries to several more.

Incidentally, the appeal by the government to the civilians to return to the "liberated area" sounds hollow under these circumstances.

The above human rights violations by the security forces and those of the government in preventing free flow of food, medicine, liquid cash and other essential items to the North, detaining mails and postal articles destined to the North in Colombo for several months, indiscriminate arrest and harassment of Tamil people in the South and detaining Tamils who travelled to Colombo in transit camps in Vavuniya irrespective of their age, sex or status, do not apparently seem to the authors as serious human rights violations as those purported to have been committed by the LTTE. If these matters are referred to at all, they find only casual mention in the reports and their inclusion seems to be intended to give a semblance of impartiality with a view of hiding the real purpose of the reports.

We are surprised that even the BBC and particularly its Tamil service which has been one of the few dependable sources of news for the Tamil people in Northern Sri Lanka has come under attack by this so called human rights organisation. It appears that the popularity of the BBC among the Tamil people seems to be a cause of worry for the authors of the report. We would like to congratulate the BBC and urge them to continue their impartial reporting without being deterred by the comments or criticism by organisations like the UTHR (Jaffna)

It is not clear on whose behalf or for whose benefit the authors have been preparing these reports but it is obvious that the reports will not serve the cause of the Tamils who have been struggling for over four decades to liberate themselves from the tyranny of an ethnic majority, first peacefully, and having failed in their peaceful attempts, now militarily.

Yourstruly,

Dr. A. Navaratnarajah, Senior Lecturer in Animal Science

Mr. R. Vijayaratnam, Senior Lecturer in Agrucultural Engineering

Mr. S. Rajadurai, Senior Lecturer in Agronomy

Dr. S. Mohanadhas, Senior Lecturer in Agricultural Chemistry

Prof. S.V. Parameswaran, Senior Professor of Physiology

Prof. K. Kunaratnam, Senior Professor of Physics