Sri Lankan State Terrorism Spreads To Paris, France
S. V. Kirubaharan
“Assassination makes only martyrs, not converts” Alphonse de Lamartine, French writer, poet and politician 21 October 1790 – 28 February 1869
With deep sadness and grief I write on the assassination carried out by the Sri Lankan military intelligence on a Tamil activist, a French citizen in Paris, France - Nadarajah Mathinthiran alias Parithi, nom de guerre Regan.
There is no doubt that this assassination was carried out by the Sri Lankan military intelligence which is directly under the Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Defence Secretary.
Last Thursday, 8 November 2012, Parithi left his office located at 341 rue de Pyrenees in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, at 9.00 pm (21.00 hrs). The assassin, who must have known Parithi’s daily movements precisely, was waiting outside his office. He cold-bloodedly opened fire on Parithi, killing him on the spot. Parithi’s colleagues who were with him were stunned at what they witnessed.
Parithi joined the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam – LTTE in 1983. He was injured in battle in 1988 and left the LTTE. Being an LTTE combatant he had participated in many battles against the Sri Lankan security forces.
He sought political asylum in France in 1990 and worked as an accounts clerk, living with his wife and daughter. In 2004, he became a full time activist and was in charge of the Tamil Coordinating Committee – TCC in Paris. He consistently supported the struggle for the right to self-determination of the Tamil people.
In 2004, during the so-called “peace time”, Parithi went to Sri Lanka. He was threatened and followed by the Sri Lanka intelligence service on his arrival at Colombo Airport until he went to the French embassy in Colombo and made a complaint. The French embassy in Colombo is well aware of this incident.
However, in April 2007, due to strong anti-LTTE lobbying, Parithi and thirteen other members of the TCC, were brought to justice by the French authorities. As a result, Parithi served a prison sentence until 2010. His re-appeal is still pending in the courts.
On leaving prison, he saw the devastated Tamil diaspora, shocked and grieved by the Mullivaighzhal massacres of May 2009. Parithi continued to serve the Tamil cause. Read More
