A Sri Lankan commander was deported back to Sri Lanka from the United Kingdom after serving a nine month prison sentence for immigration offences. This is despite allegations of numerous human rights abuses being levied at Karuna Amman; in the end The United Kingdom authorities seem unable or unwilling to bring charges against him.
Karuna Amman rose to the rank of commander in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) before leaving the LTTE to become the president of the TamilEela Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) in 2004. The TMVP is also known as the ‘Karuna faction’.
In June 1990 under the command of Karuna Amman, between 400-600 police officers who had surrendered, were bound, and gagged with the Muslims amongst them being massacred, in one of the worst incidents of the countries civil war. In July 1990 a convoy of 75 Muslims were massacred, this included men, woman and children. The following month a further 200 civilians were massacred.
More recently armed forces under Karuna Amman have been accused of ‘involuntary disappearances’ of civilians in the town of Jafna and its surrounding areas. UNICEF has also accused the Karuna faction of forcibly recruiting child soldiers. Between May 2006 and November 2006, UNICEF reported 135 cases of child recruitment, including numerous cases of child abduction and disappearances. The statement also concluded that the Karuna faction was operating with the support of the Sri Lankan government.
The list of offences that Karuna Amman has been accused of is long and shocking. Offences include mass murder (verging on genocide), abduction and the recruitment of child soldiers. However despite being imprisoned in the UK for nine months, the authorities were unable to bring a prosecution against him.
Bringing charges against a foreign warlord is not unprecedented in the UK. As in 2005 Faryadi Sarwar Zardad, an Afghan warlord, was convicted by UK courts for acts of torture and hostage taking in Afghanistan.
After arriving back in Sri Lanka, Karuna Amman said “the LTTE are now only maintaining a defence line. They can't launch any offensive. They are very weak now.” This seems to suggest he has unfinished business with the LTTE and the list of offences against him will grow.
