TRO Abductions Of January 2006 – A Second Follow-Up

By UTHR -January 30, 2014

The Colombo Telegraph carried a piece on the TRO abductions that alleges that UTHR(J) was less than honest about it. The excerpt below appeared in http://www.uthr.org/bulletins/bul44.htm of March 2007, where we followed it up by contacting people who were privy to the events. Probing deeper into such events inevitably takes time, and first soundings given out in public interest may prove inaccurate.

TRO Abductions Of January 2006 – A Second Follow-Up

We take this opportunity to present additional testimony on what has been for us an elusive episode. A TRO vehicle, which left Batticaloa on the evening of 29th January, was taken over by the Karuna group. The three female employees were questioned and released. Kasinathar Ganeshalingam and Kathirkamar Thavarasa, the driver, are missing. Unaware of this, a second TRO vehicle left about 24 hours later on 30th January. Five in this vehicle were abducted and the rest were released.

Thangarasa’s Family at the TRO Kilinochchi Office after hearing the news of his abduction

We could now say that our first information, which appeared in Special Report No.20 that the abductions were staged by the LTTE for advantage before the Geneva talks, is wrong. We are still puzzled as to how this story arose within sources close to the LTTE and why little was done to refute it. We followed up in the Supplement to Special Report No.23 with further information, which is mostly correct except for some discrepancies regarding the first vehicle.

We talked to persons who worked very closely with the TRO in Paduvankarai, and know those abducted in the second vehicle on 30th January. The inference from the testimonies of the three girls from the first vehicle (29th) given to the Human Rights Commission and Amnesty International was that Thavarasa being new to the job lost his way into danger. Our new inside sources tell us that Thavarasa was an old hand who had done this trip for three years, several times a month. They don’t know Ganeshalingam and are convinced that the first vehicle didn’t get lost, but the Karuna group planned the abductions.                                            Read More