LANKALIBRARY FORUM

LTTE pistol group guns down EPDP cadre


by Sirimevan Kasturiarchchi
The Island / 29JUL2005

The LTTE Pistol group had gunned down another member of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) yesterday ( 28 ) afternoon around 12.30 p.m. at Stanley Road in Jaffna.



The slain EPDP member, Sooriyapillei Nixon (22) Kuddattanai, Pothpathy in Point Pedro, was selling his party paper with another EPDP member, when the LTTE pistol group members approached him from behind and shot him on the head, the escaped other EPDP member had told police.

Officials of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) also visited the place.

Fri Jul 29, 2005

Coffin protest in northern Sri Lanka against alleged Tamil Tiger killings

@ Associated Press, Fri July 29, 2005 07:17 EDT .


Relatives and colleagues of a slain anti-rebel activist placed his coffin near the office of European truce monitors Friday in northern Sri Lanka, demanding justice for alleged killings by the Tamil Tiger rebels.
Suliampillai Nixon, 22, was fatally shot Thursday by a gunman suspected to be a Tamil Tiger in the northern town of Jaffna, 300 kilometers (190 miles) north of the capital, Colombo.

His relatives and colleagues refused to remove the coffin until the European cease-fire monitors assured them they will try to find a way to stop the killings.

``We understand their frustration ... but we don't have a mandate to go after the perpetrators,'' said Helen Olafsdottir, spokeswoman for Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission.

Nixon was a member of the Eelam Peoples' Democratic Party, or EPDP - formerly a militant group that fought alongside the Tigers to try carving out a separate state for Sri Lanka's ethnic minority Tamils, who claim discrimination by the majority Sinhalese.

Nixon had been selling the EPDP's newspaper when he was shot.

The EPDP renounced armed violence and turned to parliamentary politics in 1987. It now bitterly opposes the rebels.

The Tigers have been accused of killing scores of political rivals during the three-year-old cease-fire, and the EPDP claims more than 40 of its members have been killed so far.

The guerrillas began their separatist fight in 1983. About 65,000 people were killed before the government and rebels signed a Norway-brokered cease-fire in February 2002.

Subsequent peace talks have stalled due to disagreements over how much autonomy the Tigers should have, and infighting among the rebels has made the truce even more fragile.

Fri Jul 29, 2005