“While the Sri Lankan President is visiting you to get your blessings, his government is killing and disappearing Catholic priests and threatening the Bishop of Mannar. We urge you to ask for the whereabouts of the abducted Catholic priests and secure a guarantee for the protection of Bishop Dr. Rayappu Joseph, says Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran in a letter to the Pope.
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI was urged by the Prime Minister of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran to raise abduction and killing of Catholic priests and threats against the most reverend Dr. Rayappu Joseph, the Catholic Bishop of Mannar, with the visiting Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse.
Rudrakumaran further said that an influential pro-government Buddhist political party JHU has publically called for the arrest of Bishop Dr. Rayappu Joseph, for a letter Bishop wrote to the United Nations about the mass killing of Tamils. That letter highlighted the fact that 146,679 Tamils were unaccounted for when Sri Lankan forces attacked the Tamil people in 2009. A representative of this Buddhist political party JHU is a senior Cabinet Minister in the Sri Lankan President’s Cabinet.
Recently, another Cabinet Minister publicly threatened the Bishop and intimidated him for his humanitarian work. There are also reports of Buddhist statues being erected in the Mannar district. Mannar district has the largest Catholic population in Sri Lanka. The historic Madu Church, one of the ancient churches in Asia, is located in Mannar.
In addition, Sri Lankan security forces have assassinated several Catholic priests. Several priests were also abducted and disappeared. There are concerns that some of the priests may still be alive and the government is holding them in secret detentions.
Some of the Catholic Priests who either disappeared or killed are:
• Father Mary Bastian, shot dead.
• Father Eugene John Herbert SJ, abducted & disappeared.
• Father S.Selvaraja, abducted and killed.
• Father Thiruchelvam Nihal Jimbrown, abducted & disappeared.
• Father Pakiaranjith, assasinated.
• Father Xavier Karunaratnam, assassinated
• Father Francis Joseph, disappeared since 2009. Rev. Fr. Francis Joseph is a former Rector of St. Patrick’s College, Jaffna and he was seen taken by Sri Lankan Security forces.
“While the Sri Lankan President is visiting you to get your blessings, his government is killing and disappearing Catholic priests and threatening the Bishop of Mannar. We urge you to ask for the whereabouts of the abducted Catholic priests and secure a guarantee for the protection of Bishop Dr. Rayappu Joseph” said Rudrakumaran.
“We also appeal to you to raise war crimes and genocide committed by the Sri Lankan President against the Tamil people in 2009. According to the UN, troops under his command killed over 40,000 Tamils in five months and raped Tamil women” said Rudrakumaran. Tamils were singled out to face these abuses simply and solely on account of their nationality.”
War Crimes and Genocide committed by the Sri Lankan Government:
Tamils have faced repeated mass killings since 1958 and the killings in 2009 prompted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to appoint a Panel of Experts to report on the scale of killings. According to this UN report over 40,000 Tamils were killed in five months in 2009, due to deliberate and intense carpet bombing of areas designated by the government as “no-fire zones”, areas where Tamils assembled for safety.
Hospitals and food distribution centers were also singled out for bombings. The Sri Lankan Government used cluster bombs and restricted food and medicine for Tamils, resulting in large numbers of people dying from starvation and many of the injured bleeding to death. Independent experts believe that there are elements of these abuses that constitute an act of genocide.
According to the UN, Tamil women were sexually assaulted and raped by Sri Lankan forces. According to a recent UK government report there are over 90,000 Tamil war widows, many facing abuses. There are also reports that detained Tamil women are being used as sex slaves by the Security Forces.
According to Bishop Dr. Rayappu Joseph, 146,679 Tamils were unaccounted for when Sri Lankan forces attacked the Tamil people in 2009. Members of the Sri Lankan Security forces are almost exclusively from the Sinhalese community and the victims are all from the Tamil community.
Dayarathna - Kaluthara / June 7, 2012
This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.For more detail see our Comment policy
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dagobert / June 8, 2012
How could Pope do that when his batchmate S.J.Emmanuel has equated suicide cardres equal to martyers.
Further the Pope had assisted in the killing of children & Youth spirit when he had swept under the carpet scores of paedeophile caes.
According to his religion, the Pope can only pray.
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Navin Weeraratne / June 9, 2012
‘Prime Minister of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam’? Really? And this ‘Prime Minister’ was elected by who?
If you are reporting fairly, and justly, should you not further clarify who this individual is, and what his position truly represents? Instead of hoping that readers will be ignorant enough to assume this is a person of true stature?
The Colombo Telegraph Mission states ‘The quality of the information available through the media comes from the professionalism, ethics and courage of the journalists in the field and the media culture that supports them’.
It makes one think the journalists here take their job seriously, and more importantly, they take pride in their work, and truly understand the importance of their role in society.
Instead within this website we find articles such as this. Treating the reader as idiotic is not in the spirit of quality journalism. Rather that is the spirit of Tabloids. The intellect of the reader can often be used to determine the quality of a journalist. When the journalist’s target population is the ignorant, or to trick, then the journalist has already let down the true spirit of journalism, even before starting their work.
I understand the poor standard of freedoms that presently exist in Sri Lanka. But two wrongs never make a right. I only came across this website recently, and was truly hoping that I had finally found an unbiased site for Sri Lankan news. I guess not, this is simply the other extreme of the extreme you already get in Sri Lanka.
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Tanga / June 9, 2012
Navin,
//‘Prime Minister of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam’? Really? And this ‘Prime Minister’ was elected by who?//
before jump in to conclusion you should do some research.He was elected by diaspora Tamils by a transparent way. even election observers were there. p[lease do home work !
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Naga / June 9, 2012
FYI
From Wikipedia
Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnational_Government_of_Tamil_Eelam
The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is formed by unification of the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora which aims to create Tamil Eelam, a state which TGTE aspire to create in the north and east provinces of Sri Lanka.[1]
The TGTE has been called a “ploy to perpetuate terrorism” by the Government of Sri Lanka[2], which itself is under international pressure for alleged war crime probes, [3] in addition to facing accusations, by rights activists, of orchestrating human rights violations, terrorism, organized crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and, above all, genocide. For its part, the TGTE has maintained that it is a democratic organization, and intends to use soft power and not military power to its end.[4] The exact words found in TGTE constitution are : “Whereas the TGTE has guided us towards a democratic system of government, in order to establish an independent state of Tamil Eelam based on the principles of peace, non-violence, tolerance, pluralism, transparency and accountability”.[5]
Formed following the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War, the TGTE is based internationally, including in the USA, Canada, Norway and the UK. Its Prime Minister is Visvanathan Rudrakumaran, the former international legal advisor to the LTTE.[6][7][8] Global elections were amongst Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora communities in May 2010 to elect members to the first Transnational Constituent Assembly of Tamil Eelam, the first step towards the formation of the PTGTE
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Navin Weeraratne / June 10, 2012
Cheers for that Naga. I am no defender of the Sri Lankan governments, but a Prime Minister is a role held by a cabinet minister. Clearly this role played by Mr. Rudrakumaran does not qualify for such a title. Perhaps President, but certainly not Prime Minister. It only goes to show either the ignorance within this organisation as to what democracy truly represents, or their intent to fool.
Principles of peace, non-violence, tolerance, pluralism, transparency and accountability were never a strong point of the LTTE, and I find it almost laughable that these people genuinely believe that they can pass off an actual member of that organisation as one who leads and promotes such principles.
There is no interest in ‘peace, non-violence, tolerance, pluralism, transparency and accountability’ in this group. They are only interested in power to try and maintain their various existing rings of illegal activities which include human, weapons, and drug smuggling. This so called ‘Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam’ is nothing more than a farce aimed at dressing up some extremely dangerous wolves in sheep clothing.
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Anti-Boru / June 12, 2012
Navin Weeraratne:
I am in complete agreement with you when you quote the Colombo Telegraph where it says, “The quality of the information available through the media comes from the professionalism, ethics and courage of the journalists in the field and the media culture that supports them’ and go on to decry the type of contribution that it permits to appear here.
Yes, bootlickers of the regime such as you should not be published by the Colombo Telegraph because it is insulting other literate, honest people who read its contents whenever it does so.
Come on, Colombo Telegraph, ban the Weeraratnes and their type from your website. You will be doing the rest of us a BIG favour!
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gamini / June 9, 2012
The Zionists are responsible for all the chaos the world over. Unless and untill these Zionist forces are stilled, there will not be Peace anywhere. It is about time the world woke up and realised the damage caused by these Zionists, who weild absolute power over all heads of state fraudulently elected.
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Anti-Boru / June 12, 2012
gamini:
For god’s sake why don’t you make your never-ending conspiracy theories into a small (?) ball and shove it up an appropriate place? YOU ARE A MONUMENTAL BORE WHO DOES NOTHING BUT TROT OUT THIS RUBBISH WHETHER IT IS RELEVANT TO THE ISSUE UNDER DISCUSSION OR NOT.
Go to the NE corner of the room, face the wall and suck your thumb till I tell you you can leave, Okay?
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