John Kerry blames EPDP
By Gihan Nicholas- March 1, 2014
The Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), led by Minister of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development, Douglas Devananda, has been accused by the United States of having committed acts of intimidation, extortion, corruption and violence against civilians in Jaffna.
In its annual Human Rights Report released Thursday (27), the US Department of State has expressed its concern over the pro-government paramilitary outfits such as the EPDP.
"There were persistent reports of close ties between pro-government paramilitary groups such as the EPDP. These groups served more of a military function, often working in coordination with security forces, they increasingly..took on the characteristics of criminal gangs as they sought to solidify their territory and revenue sources in the post-war environment," the report released by US Secretary of State, John Kerry,states.
The EPDP has also been accused by the report of attacking the house of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) candidate, Ananthi Sasitharan, on the day prior to the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) polls. Among the injured was K. Sugash, legal advisor for the local election monitoring organization, People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), who said that he revealed his identity to the attackers prior to the assault.
The annual HR report released by the US Department of State also goes on to state that on 6 May 2013 a 12-member squad of alleged EPDP members on motorbikes had attacked President of the War Affected People's Movement (WAPM), V. Sahadevan, and Treasurer P. Pushparaja with cricket bats near the Jaffna District's Secretariat.
Yet another accusation raised in the report constitutes the remanding of EPDP member, Kanthasuwamy Jagadeswaran, for having sexually abusing and killing a 13-year-old girl. The report denotes that DNA and blood testing had reportedly confirmed Jagadeswaran's involvement in the incident and at the year's end, Jagadeswaran remained in prison on remand devoid of a court judgment.
However, when contacted, EPDP Spokesmen Nelson Edirisinghe, categorically denied all allegations against the party and said they were motivated on a personnel vendetta of the diaspora and other LTTE sympathizers.
"The EPDP, ever since it entered the democratic framework, has never committed a single offence. These are baseless allegations. From polls held in 1994, up to date, Minister Devananda has been the only Tamil politician who has garnered the highest number of votes and is a parliamentarian. We accept that there may be flawed party members in the EPDP. We have dealt with them accordingly. However, we will take adequate measures to counter the allegations which have been raised in this report. They will be made public in the near future," Edirisinghe added.
By Gihan Nicholas- March 1, 2014The Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), led by Minister of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development, Douglas Devananda, has been accused by the United States of having committed acts of intimidation, extortion, corruption and violence against civilians in Jaffna.
In its annual Human Rights Report released Thursday (27), the US Department of State has expressed its concern over the pro-government paramilitary outfits such as the EPDP.
"There were persistent reports of close ties between pro-government paramilitary groups such as the EPDP. These groups served more of a military function, often working in coordination with security forces, they increasingly..took on the characteristics of criminal gangs as they sought to solidify their territory and revenue sources in the post-war environment," the report released by US Secretary of State, John Kerry,states.
The EPDP has also been accused by the report of attacking the house of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) candidate, Ananthi Sasitharan, on the day prior to the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) polls. Among the injured was K. Sugash, legal advisor for the local election monitoring organization, People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), who said that he revealed his identity to the attackers prior to the assault.
The annual HR report released by the US Department of State also goes on to state that on 6 May 2013 a 12-member squad of alleged EPDP members on motorbikes had attacked President of the War Affected People's Movement (WAPM), V. Sahadevan, and Treasurer P. Pushparaja with cricket bats near the Jaffna District's Secretariat.
Yet another accusation raised in the report constitutes the remanding of EPDP member, Kanthasuwamy Jagadeswaran, for having sexually abusing and killing a 13-year-old girl. The report denotes that DNA and blood testing had reportedly confirmed Jagadeswaran's involvement in the incident and at the year's end, Jagadeswaran remained in prison on remand devoid of a court judgment.
However, when contacted, EPDP Spokesmen Nelson Edirisinghe, categorically denied all allegations against the party and said they were motivated on a personnel vendetta of the diaspora and other LTTE sympathizers.
"The EPDP, ever since it entered the democratic framework, has never committed a single offence. These are baseless allegations. From polls held in 1994, up to date, Minister Devananda has been the only Tamil politician who has garnered the highest number of votes and is a parliamentarian. We accept that there may be flawed party members in the EPDP. We have dealt with them accordingly. However, we will take adequate measures to counter the allegations which have been raised in this report. They will be made public in the near future," Edirisinghe added.
