News

News

Press Tigers to end killing our members:PLOTE
By Asif Fuard
The Peoples Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) which has been named as a paramilitary by the LTTE at the Geneva talks, has urged the international community to put pressure on the LTTE to stop killing members of its political party.

The LTTE has classed PLOTE with other groups such as the EPDP, the Karuna faction and the Jihad group. PLOTE has requested the Sri Lanka government to take measures to stop the Tigers from attacking its members.

In a strongly worded letter sent to the heads of foreign missions in Colombo, the organisation said, “the term paramilitary used in the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) has been misunderstood and often misinterpreted. Since the CFA is pro-LTTE its media uses this term with malice to justify the killings by the LTTE.”
Despite protection given to PLOTE members after the CFA was signed in February 2002, 21 of its members have been killed, 18 injured in attempted killings and four are missing.

Speaking to The Sunday Times PLOTE leader D. Sitharthan said PLOTE which once had a military wing surrendered its weapons to the Indian Peace Keeping Forces after the signing of the Indo-Lanka accord in 1987 and took a political path.

“After the signing of the CFA between the Sri Lanka government and the LTTE, we have handed over the weapons given to us for our protection, on the guarantee of safety of our cadres by the Sri Lanka government and the Norwegians. Our cadres are unarmed and helpless in the face of armed attacks by the LTTE. Several of our unarmed political workers have been killed/abducted by the LTTE during the ceasefire period”, he said.

“The LTTE has accused us of having links with the Sri Lanka military which I totally deny. The only links we have with the military is when security is provided to our offices in case of LTTE attacks,” he said. PLOTE has also urged the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and Norwegian special envoy Erik Solheim to secure the release of four of its members allegedly abducted by the LTTE.

SLMM spokesperson Helen Olafsdottir said these abduction incidents are still not proved and it has to be proved that the LTTE was involved in them.
The latest PLOTE cadre killed was Thirupathy Master who was shot last December allegedly by the LTTE for protesting against the abduction of a PLOTE member.

Top

Back to News