Press Release – Manchester 6 February 2006

Civil Society in Manchester UK, condemn assassination of

Joseph Pararajasingham

06 February 2006 – On Monday, a memorial event was held in Manchester Town Hall in the Lord Mayor’s Parlour, to condemn the brutal killing of Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham during the Christmas Eve mmidnight mass in St Mary’s Ccthedral, in his home town of Batticaloa, on 25 December 2005.

The meeting was organised by the Tamil Centre for Human Rights – TCHR, along with the Campaign Against State Terrorism in Sri Lanka – CASTIS, based in Manchester.

As the event commenced, a minute silence was observed, the photograph of Mr. Pararajasingham was then garlanded and a candle was lit by his son, David Joseph, who was present with his wife and children at the event. This was followed by all participants laying flowers at the photograph of Mr. Pararajasingham.

Deirdre McConnell, Director International Program of TCHR presided over the event. The hall full of participants paid tribute to Mr. Pararajasigham. Academics, politicians, lawyers, religious, community and social workers and human rights defenders spoke during the event, condemning the heinous killing of Pararajasingham. Also messages from two parliamentarians were read out.

Deirdre said in her opening comment that “Mr. Pararajasingham was a remarkable human rights defender, steadfast in exposing human rights violations committed by the security forces in his home town Batticaloa and generally in Tamil Eelam. As Joseph found there is no remedy for these complaints within the island, he had been compelled to take these violations to international forums, which infuriated the perpetrators. She accused the Sri Lankan government of killing Mr Joseph Pararajasingham and many other Human Rights Defenders.”

Following Deirdre’s speech, Labour party Manchester City Councillor Mr. Alistair Cox, welcomed the participants and said that he was shocked to hear about Joseph Pararajasingham’s killing and extended his sympathy to family members and the Tamil Community. He praised Joseph Pararajasingham as a great man. He spoke about the history of Manchester and the city’s solidarity with people of many other cultures and ethnic groups.”

Following the speech of Alistair, messages were read out from Manchester Central Constituency Labour Party Member of Parliament Mr. Tony Lloyd and Labour Party Member of European Parliament Arlene McCarthy who both condemned the slaying of Joseph Pararajasingham. In a message from Sister Sophie, she said “He was loved by all, he was a man of integrity, a person who spoke in public with great courage and sincerity.”

Soon after these solidarity messages were delivered, Ms. Ruth Abraham of CASTIS read two poems, expressing the depth of sorrow felt by so many at the immense loss of a fearless champion for human rights, and the deep yearning for freedom of the Tamil people.

Then, Dr. Paul Okojie, senior lecturer in Criminal law in the Manchester Metropolitan University spoke of Joseph’s courageous contribution to the struggle in exercise of the legally recognised right to self-determination. Paul further articulated that peoples have an inherent right to resist oppression. He spoke of the legitimacy of the Tamil resistance in terms of international law.

After Dr Paul Okojie’s speech, the Principal of Luther King House Theological training college, Reverend Dr. Richard Kidd, addressed the gathering. He expressed his sorrow at the killing of Joseph Pararajasingham and drew parallels between the oppression of people under the apartheid regime in South Africa and under former regime in El Salvador and the oppression of the Tamil people of Sri Lanka. People of goodwill of all faiths and none must join together to work for peace and justice he said.

Rev. Dr. Kidd’s speech was followed by that of a representative of Plaid Cmyru, the Welsh National Party, Ms Meg Ellis. She expressed solidarity on behalf of her political party and strongly condemned the killing of the democratically elected parlimentarian Joseph Pararajasingham, speaking in both Welsh and English.

Following the representative of Plaid Cmyru, Mr. S. V. Kirubaharan of TCHR recalled the noble task that Mr Pararajasingham was carrying out internationally on behalf of the Tamil people. He directly accused the Sri Lanka government and its agents for killing Joseph Pararajsingham. Also Kirubaharan spoke about the root causes of the political problems in the island.

Ms. Gabrielle Cox, who is well known for presenting “Thought for the Day” on BBC Radio 4, read some heart-touching and thought-provoking scripture and poems.

Following Gabrielle Cox, the main speaker in the event, the son of late Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, Mr. David Joseph was invited to address those present.

David spoke about his memories of his beloved father, which deeply moved the participants. Then he spoke of the sequence of events and gave his view of the day of his father’s assassination. He further explained how the killers had threatened family members even after the killing of his father and how the killers were intimidating civilians to deter them from taking part in his father’s funeral. He pointed out that despite these threats people from every nook and corner of Tamil Eelam, came in their thousands to pay tribute to his father. He described the circumstances of the assassination and accused the Sri Lanka government of killing his father. He said that he was astonished to note, that the President of Sri Lanka has not taken any action to bring the culprits to book even after he gave the assassins’ names personally to President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The meeting concluded with a vote of thanks to the Speakers, to those who sent messages for this memorial meeting and to all those involved in the organising of the event.

TCHR-UK

Tamil Centre for Human Rights - TCHR/CTDH

PO Box 182, Manchester M16 8ED, UNITED KINGDOM

Contact person : Deirdre McConnell – Director International Programme

Fax: + 44 161 860 4609 - Email: tchrdip@hotmail.com / tchrdip@tchr.net

HEAD OFFICE:

Tamil Centre for Human Rights - TCHR/CTDH

9, rue des Peupliers - 95140 Garge les Gonesse - FRANCE

Tel/Fax: + 33 1 42 67 54 36 - Email: tchrgs@hotmail.com / tchgs@tchr.net