War-affected Tamil mother questioned by police on alleged LTTE resurgence

A war-affected grieving mother from the Eastern Province, who is among those in the forefront seeking to find the victims of enforced disappearances, was summoned by the police on allegations of attempts to reinvigorate the now military defeated Tamil Tigers.

Thambirasa Selvarani who heads the Association for the Relatives of the Enforced Disappearances (ARED) in the Amparai district, is among those elderly mothers who are searching for their children even after the brutal civil war came to a bloody end in May 2009. Their beloved were either forcefully disappeared or handed over by the family members to the state security forces.

She was summoned by the Thirukkovil police for an inquiry to record her statement by the Counter Terrorism Investigation Department (CTID) on the 8th of October and to be present herself at the Women and Child division.

The male officer in charge had said she was summoned based on a complaint made by the Navy and the Army to the CTID Headquarters.

As part of the investigations, Selvarani says she was asked for details about her past and present.

“Apart from a file containing my personal details that were handed over to the OIC by the police department, a set of questions from the CTID were also given to them. Everything seems preplanned”.

She was also asked about her alleged association with the LTTE.

“How many years were you with the LTTE? During that period how many military persons you killed, asked the policeman,” she told local journalists after the inquiry.

Adding further, Thambirasa Selvarani told that the inquiring officer asked her citing reports about efforts to reinvigorate the LTTE in India and France even after the Sri Lankan government announced they were annihilated fifteen years back.

“Are you spearheading such action in Sri Lanka?”

However, the police officials did not produce any proof of the said reports of recreating the LTTE, but kept on questioning her.

“I am 53 years old now. Coming 12th December I will be 54. I don’t even have the physical strength to look after my own needs. In such a case how or where am I going to do such things? Wasn’t it only you who said they have been defeated, annihilated etc?”

Even while she replied so, Selvarani was asked repeatedly, “Did you not do so?”

“There is no such thing. I am not doing anything like that Sir, nothing like that” she said in her reply to the OIC. She told the local journalists asking such unfounded questions about her past is mentally traumatizing.

The unrelenting police officer was trying to destabilize me mentally and kept on asking the same question in different forms, she adds.

“Is it not those said to be victims of enforced disappearances you search for are former LTTE carders?” she was questioned again.
“Those martyred are gods now. We are searching for the children whom we handed over to the security forces, or those who surrendered to them,” she had replied back.

She says the police officer asked her in an intimidating manner their motive for searching for the disappeared, to which Thambirasa Selvarani had retorted by saying their protest only aimed at knowing the fate of their beloved ones.

When the police officer questioned again if the protest was for the benefit of all the Sinhala, Tamil, and Muslim victims of disappearances, The Amparai district President of the ARED had shot back in the affirmative.
“Yes. Our aim is to find the fate of all those and bring out the truth. Whoever it is. All are human beings. We should know what happened to all of them”.

Not satisfied with her answer the police officer questioned her repeatedly about their motive saying if those disappeared were discovered, then the truth about who made them disappear would be known, and “you want them to be punished?”

Selvarani had told the OIC that they are not demanding death for the perpetrators.
“Yes, that has to happen for sure. They should be punished, not killed, they should know how and what prison life is and endure that”.

ARED Amparai President, Thambirasa Selvarani told local journalists the police officers showed her photographs from the file folder about her, which had photos of events and demonstrations where she participated both locally and abroad including her participation of the UN Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva.

The Association for the Relatives of the Enforced Disappearances in the North and East Provinces, is a Tamil war victims group created to search for the tens of thousands of people who disappeared during Sri Lanka’s armed conflict.