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| Tamil Parliamentarian Raviraj shot dead in Colombo
Nadarajah Raviraj, Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian was shot in Colombo around 8:30 a.m. Friday. The MP succumbed to his wounds at Colombo National Hospital. A lawyer turned politician, former mayor of Jaffna, Mr. Raviraj, elected twice, has been an outspoken parliamentarian who voiced against the extra-judicial killings and forced disapperances in NorthEast and Colombo. The parliamentarian took part in a demonstration Thursday against the Sri Lanka Army shelling in Vaharai where 47 Tamil civilians, Internally Displaced from Trincomalee, were killed, Wednesday. The shooting took place near the MPs residence at Manningtown, Narahenpitiya in Colombo when unknown gunmen riding a motorbike shot at him while he was preparing to drive his car. The MP had just returned from participating in a Derana TV interview program between 7:00 am to 8:00 p.m. Mr. Raviraj passed away at 9:20 a.m., according to Dr. Hector Weerasinghe at the hospital. His bodyguard was pronounced dead on admission. Damaged side window of Raviraj's car "A democratic voice of Tamils has been silenced in Sri Lanka's capital today," said Selvam Adaikalanathan," fellow TNA MP who charged that resourceful Tamil politicians, journalists and activists are being systematically killed in Sri Lanka. "Raviraj tirelessly worked to improve the conditions of the people living under economic embargo to relieve the humanitarian catastrophy. He had a convincing way of dealing with even the crude bureaucracy of this failed state," Mr. Adaikalanathan said. "He fought from their platform. His voice in the Sri Lankan Parliament, and in South, where injustice and oppression originate, was much feared." "By silencing the democratic voices of the Tamils, the Sri Lankan military and its paramilitaries such as the EPDP will not be able to silence the Tamil struggle," the MP added. Originally from Chavakachcheri, Raviraj worked as a human rights lawyer in Colombo between 1989 to 1996 before embarking on a political career, first becoming the Mayor of Jaffna. During the last few months Raviraj participated in the Civil Monitoring Committee (CMC), working with Mano Ganesan MP (Colombo District), Vasudeva Nanayakara MMC, Dr.Vickramabahu Karunaratne, and Appapillai Vinayagamoorthy to monitor extra judicial killings, abductions and disappearances. He is a father of two children. TN, 10.11.2006 |