SRI LANKA: HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS IN CLERGY FACE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 000154 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/INS MCC FOR S GROFF, D NASSIRY, E BURKE AND F REID E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/24/2017 TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER PHUM MOPS CE SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS IN CLERGY FACE INTIMIDATION, DEATH REF: COLOMBO 68 Classified By: Ambassador Robert O. Blake, Jr., for reasons 1.4(b, d). ¶1. (C) Summary: Catholic and Protestant clergy engaged in human rights work in the predominantly Tamil North and East report they have received death threats from elements of the Government of Sri Lanka (GSL) security forces and their allied paramilitaries, including that of Social Development Minister Douglas Devananda's Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP). At least two priests have disappeared and/or been killed in the Jaffna Peninsula since August 2006. Nine other priests have told us about threats to their lives. Tamil clergy in the north and east contend that Sinhalese clergy in the south are uninterested in human rights work and have even discouraged them from pursuing it. These threats form part of a broader pattern of intimidation directed against those who speak out about human rights abuses by paramilitaries linked to government security forces. End summary. Reverend Shot in Jaffna, Priest Disappeared on Kayts -------------- -------------- ¶2. (C) On January 13, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers shot dead National Evangelical Alliance pastor Nallathamby Gnanseelan at a Jaffna junction as he traveled by motorbike to his Tamil Mission Church. A military spokesman initially claimed the pastor had been carrying a hand grenade (rather than a small bible). Later, the army conceded the soldiers had been mistaken when a police report demonstrated Rev. Gnanseelan had been unarmed. ¶3. (C) Catholic priest Father Jim Brown was last seen on August 20, 2006 at a Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) check point at Alapitty, Kayts. (Note: Kayts is a small island accessible by bridge from the Jaffna peninsula controlled by the SLN and, by many accounts, the EPDP.) Father Brown had assisted a number of civilians in moving from Alapitty to Kayts town following the break-out of armed conflict between the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) and GSL security forces on August 11-13, 2006, in which 15 civilians were killed and 54 injured. Before his disappearance, he reported receiving threats from the Commanding Officer of Alapitty Naval Camp, who accused the priest of helping the LTTE build bunkers. No Refuge -------------- ¶4. (C) When Assistant Parish Priest of Our Lady of Refuge church in Jaffna Fr. Mariathas organized a peaceful protest march against the disappearance of Fr. Brown, the SLA prevented the rally, took photographs of Fr. Mariathas and other demonstrators, and scolded him with derogatory language. After the demonstration, Fr. Mariathas reported being followed by members of the EPDP. ¶5. (C) Another Parish Priest of Alapitty, Kayts, Fr. Amalraj of the St. Philip Neri Church, was an eye-witness to the moments after SLN personnel allegedly massacred 13 civilians in Alapitty on May 13, 2006. Afterwards, he took the two surviving family members to the hospital in his personal vehicle. He then submitted a statement to the police and to the magistrate that security forces had been involved in the killing of civilians. After reportedly being threatened by security forces personnel, Fr. Amalraj was transferred to a parish in LTTE-controlled Kilinochchi. Robes and Collars or Tiger Stripes? -------------- ¶6. (C) Fr. Karunaratnam of the North East Secretariat of COLOMBO 00000154 002 OF 003 Human Rights reports threats from the SLA and the EPDP. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights had helped set up this LTTE-affiliated human rights monitoring office by conducting human rights training for LTTE administrative leaders in 2003, after the 2002 Cease-Fire Agreement. However, many other priests with no connection o LTTE-affiliated organizations have received deth threats from persons they believe to be connecte to the security forces and/or paramilitary orgaizations, such as the LTTE-rival Eelam People's emocratic Party, led by Social Welfare Minister ouglas Devananda. Father A. I. Bernard of the Cnter for Peace and Human Rights Culture fled to Erope after the EPDP allegedly warned him againstspeaking out against human rights abuses to the inernational community. Psycho-social counselor F. C.G. Jeyakumar of the Catholic relief organizaion CARITAS left Sri Lanka temporarily in Novembe 2006 after receiving death threats sourced to te EPDP. ¶7. (C) Fr. J.J. Bernard of the Center for Peace and Reconciliation in Jaffna has documented human rights abuses in detail and shared these reports with members of the international community. On November 24, police arrested him for his participation in a post-card campaign against security forces' human rights abuses. He was released on bail and awaits trial, though the Attorney General's Department has not yet filed charges. PolOff met with Fr. Bernard on January 23 in Colombo. Fr. Bernard noted that after finally receiving a military clearance to leave Jaffna for several weeks he had been continually harassed. He told us that Army personnel had visited the clergy's hostel in Colombo and his parents' house in Kandy to inquire where he was traveling and with whom he was meeting. No Ethnic Problem? -------------- ¶8. (C) Ambassador met with Colombo Archbishop Gomis, a Sinhalese, on January 17. He lamented that a "large majority of people want a peaceful political solution to the conflict. There is no ethnic problem. A small vociferous group that benefits from war has prolonged it. The Sinhalese didn't riot against the Tamils in 1983 -- it was a group of thugs. We (the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka) are for devolution of power within one country." He complained that the nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party and the "terrorists" had crippled the economic development of the country. The Archbishop highlighted the Church's human rights work "for individuals" through CARITAS. ¶9. (C) Fr. J.J. Bernard told poloff on January 23 that the Colombo Archbishop had advised priests in the north to turn down the volume of their human rights activism. In a January 11 meeting with the Ambassador (reftel),the Bishops of Mannar and Jaffna decried that southern, Sinhalese bishops and other clergy were silent on the human rights "crisis" in the north and east. ¶10. (C) COMMENT: The intimidation of Sri Lankan Christian clergy represents more than a threat to religious freedom in Sri Lanka. Rather, it is part of a more general pattern of threats and harassment directed against all those who speak out about human rights abuses by shadowy organizations believed to be connected to GSL security forces. In the aggregate, this has created a climate of fear in the country where those with knowledge of abuses are afraid to speak out. The Catholic Clergy of Sri Lanka have been among the foremost human rights activists, documenting abuses and taking this evidence to judicial and police authorities and the international community. While the credibility and position of the Bishops has allowed them to speak out when others have been silenced, more junior parish priests do not COLOMBO 00000154 003 OF 003 enjoy the same protection. BLAKE