Tamil Rehabilitation Org Targeted Once Again

On 5 January 2007 Sri Lankan Special Task Force personnel and Sri Lankan police simultaneously stormed the regional offices of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) in Trincomalee and Vavuniya. The following day the Colombo office of the TRO was raided, without any warrant, by the police.

Six members of the Criminal Investigation Division had asked for the home addresses of TRO staff of the Colombo office. In the Vavuniya and Trincomalee offices all the documents, project files, accounts details, computers, check books, vouchers, and computer disks were seized. All personnel at both offices were also photographed and videotaped as were the vehicles and the offices’ interior and exterior.

TRO's Board of Governors, in a report issued on 26 December 2006, two years after the Boxing Day Tsunami, listed the problems faced by the NGO workers in general and TRO in particular. There have been 19 major attacks, and numerous minor attacks, on TRO aid workers, offices or projects over the past two years, the report said.

For example, on 8 November 2006 in Karhiraveli, Vaharai 47 internally displaced persons were killed and 136 injured by Government of Sri Lanka shelling. The TRO Children’s Home was damaged and 12 children were injured. On 10 December 2006 a similar incident occurred when the Government of Sri Lanka shelled 3 TRO camps in Palchchenai, Kandalady, and Vammivadduvan. Forty internally displaced persons were killed and 100 injured in this attack.

Another example is the January 2006 abduction of seven TRO aid workers by armed paramilitary gunmen. One of these persons, Mr. Ganeshalingam, was a member of TRO’s Board of Governors, while the others were preschool administrative staff and the Batticaloa Chief Accountant, Ms. Premini, and her team of accountants. These people remain “disappeared” with no real investigation having taken place by the responsible authorities.

In the opinion of COTANZ (Consortium of Tamil Association in New Zealand), the specific targeting of Tamil civilians and NGO workers will only stop when there exists a sufficient cost to the Sri Lankan armed forces carrying out this type of tactic. Recent events amply demonstrate that the level of pressure bought to bear by the Sri Lankan judicial system does not create a sufficient cost.

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