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Sri Lanka's Undeclared War on Eelam Tamils
...in the Shadow of a Ceasefire
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 Two young sisters, Bojan Renuka, 30, and Bojan Shanuka, 23, and their mother Bojan Arthanageswary, 51, residents of a house in Mudaliyar Kanagasabai Road in Manipay, close to the Manipay Hindu College, Jaffna district, were shot dead Sunday night at 11.45 p.m. by gunmen, suspected to be Sri Lanka Army (SLA) intelligence operatives and members of Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) paramilitary, who entered the house and sprayed bullets at the residents, sources said. The father, Nagendran Bojan, 55, and brother Bojan Ullasan, 26, sustained gunshot injuries and are receiving treatment at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, medical sources said.The gunmen shot the victims as they were coming down the stairs from upper floor of a two-storeyed house, sources said.The bodies of the three women have been taken to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital for postmortem examinations, medical sources said.Bojans is a maaveerar family and Renuka acted as the main character in a Tamil film "Amma Nalama?" (Mother, are you well?) produced by the Liberation Tigers' film division Nitharsanam. Mr Bojan Nagendram worked as the Director of Jaffna St John's Ambulance brigade, and is also the Kankesanthurai district co-ordinator of Boys Scouts, residents of Manipay said. Mrs Bojan is the assistant Director of St John's Ambulance Brigade. Ullansan teaches Mathematics at Jaffna Central College. Renuka, a graduate, is an English teacher at the Suthumalai Chinmaya Vidyasalai and her registration for marriage took place 15 December. Shanuka is a first year Arts undergraduate at the Jaffna Campus. The family was displaced from Kollan Kalladdi in Valigamam North and were residing in Manipay. Manipay is located 10 km north of Jaffna town. |
Name: Bojan Renuka (Female) (30) Marital status: Married for 2 weeks Renuka studied at Mahajana College in Tellipalai near the home of herparents. She displaced with the rest of the family from their own home inTellipalai in the 1990’s because the Sri Lankan Army too over the landand declared it a military High Security Zone. Renuka has a B.Com degree. She wasworking as an English teacher at the Thimyabarathy School near her home in Manipay.Renuka was married just two weeks prior to the killing. Name: Bojan Shannuka (Female) Shannuka, like her sister Renuka, studied at Mahajana College inTellipalai. Shannuka is a good actress and she has acted in locallyproduced successful Tamil movies. She was studying towards a degree.Shannuka also acted in a drama that was produced to promote friendshipand networks between Muslim, Tamil, and Sinhala youths. The drama was directed by aleading Sinhala director whose name the family is unable to remember.Arththanareeswari Name: Bojan Arththanareeswari (Female) (51) Arththanareeswari, mother of Renuka and Shannuka, had threeaccomplished children. The third child is her son Bojan Ullasan who isa Mathematics teacher at Jaffna Central College. The incident At 8.00 pm on the night of the murder the family noticed large number of Sri LankanArmy (SLA) soldiers standing in front of their gate for sometime. Their home inManipay where the family lived is a two story building. They were able to see the SLAsoldiers standing in front of their gate. All of the SLA soldiers were covering their facewith black cloth. Family felt threatened at that time. However, by 10.00 pm the SLAsoldiers had left and the family felt slightly at east and went to bed. Other residents in the vicinity said that they saw an unusually large number of SLAsoldiers on the road leading to the family’s home around 10.00 pm. These residentscommented that they were puzzled by this SLA operation at that time and that when theythink back about the SLA operations they now realize that the SLA soldiers were in factclearing the road leading to the family’s home. At 10.00 pm, the Bojan family heard dogs barking that became louder and louder. Thefamily heard big bangs on their gate and when they woke up and looked, they saw ninemen jumping over their gate and banging their door. Bojan Senior (56) opened the doorand his son Ullasan (26) was behind the father. The gunmen made both the father andthe son to sit on the ground just outside the house. By then Shannuka came to the entrance and she was pulled outside of the house by thegunmen and shot. She fell to the ground immediately. Hearing the gunshot Shannuka’ssister and mother, Renuka and Arththanareeswari, looked out from their rooms. By nowthe gunmen were inside the house and were spraying bullets. Renuka andArththanareeswari were hit by bullets and fell to the ground. Renuka’s husband who wasinside the room remained in the dark and the gunmen did not see him. Father Bojan and son Ullasan were still sitting on the ground just outside the house asordered by the gunmen. Father had his head between his knees and was crying. His sonUllasan was turning and looking inside the house where his mother and two sisters laydead. As the gunmen walked out they shot the two men sitting on the ground. The bullets wereclearly aimed at their chest, however, the father received the bullet on his knee becauseof his squatting position and son received the bullet on his waist because he had turnedand looked inside the house. When Ullasan was shot he got up and ran inside screamingand fell in the front hall. The gunmen returned to the room and shot Ullasan again. Incident location Once the gunmen left the house Renuka’s husband came out. Arththanareeswari, Renukaand Shannuka were dead by then. Bojan Senior had a bullet wound on his knees.Renuka’s husband attended to Ullasan to stop his bleeding. Fear prevents assistance to the family When Renuka’s husband tried to get a vehicle to take the injured and dead familymembers to the hospital no one in the neighbourhood would come to their assistance outof fear of retribution. Bojan Senior used to work for St John’s Ambulance. Through thatcontact he asked for an ambulance. He was able to do that an hour after the shooting andthe ambulance arrived two hours after the shooting. If not for this father and son toowould have died. Father and son were admitted to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital wherethey are still receiving treatment. The inquiry Several law “enforcing authorities” which included, Manipay police, Jaffna police headoffice, and CID from Colombo, visited the remaining family members to inquire aboutthe incident. SLMM also visited the family members to inquire. Note by NESOHR: NESOHR is with holding the identities of the people who haveprovided us with information about the case for their own safety. NESOHR is ready toshare more detailed information with any reputable international human rightsorganizations wishing to inquire into this case. International diplomats, media personnel and INGO staff in the island have asked uswhy we have not issued reports on the attacks on the Sri Lankan military. We aresurprised by this question. NESOHR is styled as a national human rights organizationand its main task is to protect the human rights of those who are unarmed. For thisreason we do not bring under our purview the attacks on armed persons like the SriLankan military, members of the LTTE and members of other armed groups. Dr N Malathy(NESOHR Secretary)
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