Abducted activist of Sri Lanka's Frontline Socialist Party speaks to media following release

Abducted activist of the Frontline Socialist Party of Sri Lanka today described her ordeal today at a special press briefing.

She said she was abducted in April 06 evening close to her house in Godagama by a group that came in a white van. She said she was blindfolded and gagged.

"I was questioned and when I remained silent they attacked me. They took me while questioning to a far away place that I suppose a place linked to military. They took me to  an upstairs. Questioned about two hours about the international relations of the Movement for People's Struggles, about the bank accounts of the passbooks that were in my bag, about the activists of the party and later put me into a room both hands and legs handcuffed.

"Later in the early morning, I was taken to a room and questioned. There was Kumar Mahattaya also. They questioned both of us. They wanted to know about armed wing, future plans and party convention scheduled on April 09.

"We were questioned for around two hours and I was put back to the room.

"In the night of April 07th, they took me in a van to another place close to a main road in a residential area, I suppose. They brought Kumar Mahattaya also in the van as I perceived. We were kept their until I was freed.

"Last night, a new official who had not questioned me earlier came and said to me that Kumar Mahattaya would be deported to Australia. He further said to me that I would also be released after that after observing if Kumar Mahattaya would behave as they asked him to do. They asked me to get ready to go last night also but I noticed they would not take me.

"In the morning, they took me in a van and asked me not to try to trace them or the vehicle number. They dropped me on a by-road in Thalapathpitiya. I came to this office in a three wheeler.

"They always highlighted that they had no links with the government or military. They repeatedly questioned about armed activities, links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE), about Lalith and Kugan etc. They also highlighted that they had no links with Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

"The last official that questioned me said that they had understood that FSP had no link with the LTTE and it is not receiving funds Tamil Diaspora.

"Answering questions of the journalist, she said that she saw two persons with blue uniforms as she was arrested. She also said that She added that two persons got down on the way from the vehicle who spoke pro-JVP. They said that this was the punishment for me for breaking away from JVP."

She said that it was clear for her that this (abduction) was a (part of an) official and non official process to suppress activists who work against the government.

Dimuthu Atigala said she joined the JVP in 1988 as a student of Bandarawela district. Later she worked as an English teacher for sometime and joined the JVP as a full time activist after 1994.

She said that the abductors told her that JVP was providing them information to suppress FSP.

Dimuthu Atigala said she would continue politics.

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Please let them go! (An appeal for the release of Premakumar Gunarathnam and Dimuthu Atigala)

Sri Lanka's political craze is incomprehensible.

Now, the de facto leader of Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) leader Premakumar Gunarathnam and FSP senior cadre Dimuthu Atigala have disappeared.

Premakumar lived an illegal life without any clear reason as an internal leader of the People's Liberation Front (JVP) for at least 16 years.

He was not in any legal document of the party although he was one of the senior most leaders. But he lived a normal life with his wife who was a doctor being a loving father to his two kids who educated in elite schools in Colombo. Later, they migrated to Australia apparently for a better life.

Premakumar could be made a popular JVP leader and his Tamil name also could be marketed well in the JVP's Sinhala chauvinist politics that went in the guise of socialism.

But JVP hierarchy did not do that and Premakumar also appeared lacking interest in that regard.

FSP spokesman Senadheera Gunathilaka a.k.a. Comrade Opatha is also a similar guy. Both were powerful internal leaders who had their bandwagon. They marketed their elusive characteristic as revolutionary nature of the party. JVP hierarchy exploited the labor of the honest and energetic lower strata cadres marketing these duo as revolutionary symbols of the party and they also were well aware of the party tactic.

After the split, JVP betrayed them and Premakumar who used forged identity was the direct victim. There was no any charge against Opatha. Premakumar had come to Sri Lanka from Australia on the request of his followers and he was unable to return since his forged identity was betrayed by the JVP.

His wife came to meet him, perhaps since the kid/s direly needed to see him. She was followed by intelligence from airport to airport and finally held her there for questioning as she was about to leave.

Premakumar lived under cover in fear of threats to his life, as FSP says. But it is clear that the FSP also has not taken his security serious. The middle aged leaders of FSP have all crawled into their family homes leaving behind  this helpless lone man to stay in the night alone in a lonely house.

Duminda Nagamuwa accompanied Dimuthu Atigala to Thalawathugoda and let the woman to take a night bus alone to go to Godagama. I have questions regarding these acts.

Finally, both Dimuthu and Premakumar disappeared.

JVP betrayed Premakumar. Perhaps the JVP wants to see the death of Premakumar who they have labelled as a traitor.

I can't understand why the government want to kill this man who is not linked to any type of subversive act in the recent past, as I perceive.

But a similar line of people from Prageeth Ekneligoda disappeared leaving mysteries behind as the causes of their deaths.

I beg from the armed powers that abducted Premakumar and Dimuthu to spare them, drop them somewhere and let them go to the FSP conference on April 09 unless they are produced in court.

I don't think there is big conspiracy behind this FEP issue. They are a bunch of middle aged, middle class family men who appear to contemplate the wrongs they did to this country through their narrow political strategies . They may have beautiful ideas today but I don't think the generation will recover from the blood politics of chauvinism they were engaged in the first decade of the new millennium.

If someone wants to take lives of Premakumar and Dimuthu, they may be in want of revival of violence and terrorism in this country which will not bring any good at all.

Please let them go!

-Ajith Perakum Jayasinghe

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