[IPK] FW: [FW] SLDF Condemns Brutal and Cowardly Attack on Loganathan Master in Germany

[Inprekorr]

-----Original Message-----
From: BSkanthakumar at aol.com [mailto:BSkanthakumar at aol.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2005 9:34 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: [FW] SLDF Condemns Brutal and Cowardly Attack on Loganathan
Master in Germany 

 

For Immediate Release

16 November 2005

SLDF Condemns the Brutal and Cowardly Attack on Loganathan Master in
Germany

On 12 November 2005, Vaithiyanathan Loganathan, aged fifty-five and
resident in Neuss, Germany, was brutally attacked by three to four men. 
Mr. Loganathan, known in the Tamil community as Loganathan Master, was a
teacher at Central College in Jaffna in the early 1980s and has since
been
resident in Germany for the last two decades.  He was a founding member
of
the 'illakiya chandippu' (Tamil literary gatherings) and editor of the
Tamil magazine 'Aruwai' in the late 1980s.  On 5 November 2005, Mr.
Loganathan organized a memorial meeting in Neuss that condemned the
assassinations of two Jaffna principals, Nadarajah Sivakadatcham and
Kanakapathy Rajadurai, in mid-October.  ( See SLDF statement of 4
November
2005 on educational freedom:
http://www.lankademocracy.org/documents.html#05nov4 )  During the days
leading up to the memorial meeting, Loganathan and his family received
numerous threats from supporters of the LTTE.  The police were informed
of
these threats and the meeting was held with police protection.

The memorial meeting drew close to a hundred activists, former teachers,
intellectuals and poets from many European countries.  The poems read at
the meeting, were under the general title, "Can a bullet close the eyes
of
education?"  The meeting was broadcast live by the Tamil Broadcasting
Corporation to listeners in Europe and Sri Lanka.  Like other such
meetings held in recent months, this memorial meeting is a challenge to
the LTTE's hegemony over the Tamil diaspora and the LTTE's undemocratic
claim of sole-representation.

A week later at about 11 pm on Saturday, 12 November 2005, Mr.
Loganathan
was attacked while closing his store in Essen, Germany.  He was attacked
from behind and his attackers smashed his head with beer bottles and
broke
his leg with an iron rod.  While Mr. Loganathan was viciously beaten
facedown, he heard one of the attackers shout in Tamil, "Do you dare
hold
a meeting?"  Mr. Loganathan's assailants fled when neighbouring shop
owners came to his rescue.  He was taken to the hospital, where the deep
wounds to his head required twelve stitches and medical care was given
for
his fractured leg.

SLDF calls on the German police and authorities to bring those
responsible
to justice and to investigate whether the LTTE and its front
organizations
were responsible or complicit in this crime.  Indeed, in recent months
the
threats against dissenting Tamil activists have been escalating
throughout
the Tamil diaspora.  Political columnist Selliah Nagarajah in Australia
received death threats from the LTTE death squad Ellalan Force last
month,
and a number of activists in Canada have been targeted by LTTE website
Nitharsanam.  However, this attack on Mr. Loganathan signals the LTTE's
willingness to resume physical attacks against diaspora activists, which
was characteristic of its actions in the 1990s.  The LTTE has always
recognized the gravity of Tamil dissent in the diaspora.  Such
challenges
threaten its hegemony over the Tamil community as a whole as well as its
war efforts in Sri Lanka, which would be crippled without its political
and financial base in the West.  In 1994, dissenting Tamil activist
Sabaratnam Sabalingam was murdered by the LTTE in broad daylight in
Paris.
Neither Sabalingam's killers nor those who sanctioned the crime were
brought to justice. Similarly in 1993, D.B.S. Jeyaraj suffered head
injuries and a broken leg, when he was brutally beaten by LTTE thugs
armed
with baseball bats for his dissenting writings in Toronto.  The LTTE
should not be allowed to extend its culture of intimidation and violence
to the West, particularly since these Tamils arrived in the West seeking
refuge from such violence.

In the past, authorities in Western countries have not taken the rights
of
their Tamil residents and citizens seriously, and have often chosen to
look the other way in the face of violence within the community.
However,
in its statement on 26 September 2005 issuing a travel ban against the
LTTE, the European Union stated the agreement among Member States to
take
"additional national measures to check and curb illegal or undesirable
activities (including issues of funding or propaganda) of the LTTE, its
related organizations and known individual supporters."  The European
authorities' commitment to human rights and democracy will be reflected
in
how they choose to address attacks against their own citizens and
residents who, like Mr. Loganathan, seek to promote pluralism and
democracy within the diaspora.  If the EU is unwilling or unable to
effectively respond to the LTTE, and instead allows basic rights and
freedoms to be violated with impunity within its own territory, it is
unlikely to contribute to a peace with human rights and democracy in Sri
Lanka.


http://www.lankademocracy.org/documents.html#05nov16


-- 
Sri Lanka Democracy Forum
www.lankademocracy.org

Sri Lanka Democracy Forum is a community that shares a commitment to a
democratic and pluralistic vision of Sri Lanka.  We recognize that in
addition to the loss of lives, the costs of war also entailed the
erosion
of democracy, the demobilization of pluralistic and independent social
movements, and the further victimization of marginalized communities.
In
that context, we believe that movement towards a just and sustainable
peace must be accompanied by the reconstruction of a democratic
community
that protects and promotes social justice, and the individual and
collective rights and freedoms of all communities in Sri Lanka.  We are
in
solidarity with, and have a commitment to support the efforts of
marginalized communities to address past injustices, whether such
injustice was based on the suppression of dissent, economic
disempowerment, and/or on ethnic, gender or caste discrimination at the
national or regional level.  Among other efforts, we seek to proactively
support grass roots movements that seek to expand and revitalize
conditions for a vibrant, pluralistic and independent civil society that
nurtures freedom of conscience, diverse political affiliations and an
independent media.  Thus, we believe that the terrain for engagement is
not merely macro-political policy, but also economic decision-making,
cultural production, and diverse local struggles furthering
democratization in all spheres of life.

The Sri Lanka Democracy Forum had its inaugural meeting in Toronto,
Canada
in 2002.

Contact E-mail: contact at lankademocracy.org

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