… laments absence of consensus among Tamil parties regarding ex-LTTE cadres in custody

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Democratic People’s Front (DPF) leader Mano Ganesan, MP, has strongly defended signing a petition initiated by SLPP (Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna) seeking a presidential pardon for former UPFA Colombo District lawmaker Duminda Silva currently serving a life sentence for 2011 killing of ex-MP Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra.

Addressing the media in Colombo, Ganesan, who is also the leader of the Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) explained how he sought to draw public attention to approximately 100 Tamil political prisoners languishing in jail by backing the move to secure presidential pardon for Silva.

MP Ganesan claimed he felt quite confident that the media coverage generated by the petition signed by nearly 150 lawmakers could help his longstanding cause to have the detained Tamils released.

Alleging that Tamil political prisoners issue hadn’t received sufficient public attention, Ganesan said that he believed the high profile initiative could help them as well.

At the successful conclusion of the war in May 2009, the government held over 12,000 LTTE cadres, the vast majority taken prisoner on the Vanni east front. In addition to them, there had been several hundred arrested during the conflict, some of them convicts. Of the total, approximately 100 remain in custody over a decade after the conflict.

Ganesan revealed that having signed the petition, he proposed to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to submit a separate petition seeking the release of Tamil political prisoners to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The DPF leader alleged that the TNA refrained from providing the required backing for his initiative.

The Lawmaker quoted Jaffna District MP M.A. Sumanthiran, PC as having told him that the time was not opportune for such an initiative. Vanni District MP Selvam Addaikalanathan had said that the matter would be considered later, Genesan told the media, while acknowledging the right of colleagues to take a different stand.

 Both Sumanthiran and Addaikalanathan didn’t respond to telephone calls.

The Chief Government Whip Johnston Fernando’s Office circulated the petition in Parliament on behalf of Duminda Silva. Minister Fernando, too, didn’t respond to telephone calls.

Genesan said that those who had ignored his genuine intentions flayed him over social media and other forums. The former National Co-existence, Dialogue and Official Languages Minister said that some sections of the Tamil community found fault with him for linking Tamil political prisoners issue with that of the former UPFA lawmaker. Ganesan pointed out though they called those in prison political prisoners, the majority community still considered them terrorists. The Tamil community should realize ground realities, the former Minister said.

 Pointing out that those the Tamil community described as fighters were criminals for the global community, MP Ganesan said that difficulties experienced by both Tamils and Muslims could be resolved by bringing their plight to the notice of the Sinhalese.

 TPA contested the August 2020 parliamentary election on Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) ticket.

MP Ganeshan said that his political career couldn’t be derailed by those exploiting the signing of the petition by him in support of former MP Silva’s release.

He wouldn’t give up efforts to secure Tamil prisoners’ release through legitimate measures and he would withdraw his signature from Silva’s petition to prevent interested parties from exploiting the situation, the former minister said.

At the onset of the briefing MP Ganeshan said that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa granted presidential pardon for Staff Sergeant Sunil Ratnayake found guilty of Dec 2000 Mirusuvil massacre. Ratnayake was sentenced to death in 2015 for the killing of eight persons. Ganesan further pointed out that former President Maithripala Sirisena pardoned Jude Jayamaha sentenced to death for killing teenager Yvonne Jonsson, a dual national whose mother was Sri Lankan. She was beaten to death after an earlier argument with Jayamaha, in the stairwell of posh Royal Park apartment complex, where her family was living in 2005.

Jayamaha was initially given 12 years in prison. His subsequent appeal against his jail term was rejected and he was sentenced to death instead, a sentence upheld by the Supreme Court in 2014.

MP Ganesan said that President Sirisena hastily released Jayamaha shortly before he left office.