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Sri Lanka: Fr. Karunarathnam, Third priest to be killed in the North

http://www.lankadissent.com/columnews/Karunarathnam.htm

Fr. Karunarathnam.of the diocese of Jaffna was killed on the 20th of April 2008.
He is the third Christian priest assassinated, the last two years. Fr. Jim Brown and his assistant disappeared while he was engaged in the service of the war victims. Fr. Pakkiya Ranjith of the diocese of Mannar was killed when he was carrying food for the refugees. The latest victim is Fr. Karunarathnam.
Fr. Karunarathnam was addressed by his admirers and loved ones as Fr. Killi. In keeping with the doctrine of Jesus, he had a deep concern for the poor. He worked tirelessly day and night for the victims. He was one who did an extraordinary amount of work for the wellbeing of the Tsunami victims as well as those victimized by the war. In his work, he closely collaborated with numerous civil society organizations.
Whenever he came to the South he used to meet his priest friends and pro-peace groups and helped them to understand the pulse of the people in the North and East, and also took to the North the feelings of the people in the South.  He had a strong belief that an effective solution can be found only in a continuous dialogue between the two communities and thus he himself became a bridge between the two.
In the current atmosphere of war, the violation of human rights is a daily occurrence in the North and East. In order to meet the challenge of defending the rights of people of these areas of Sri Lanka, he founded the NESHOR and actively engaged himself courageously and unceasingly in this very demanding exercise. Now he is no more with us.
Already Sri Lanka has gained a very bad name internationally with the killing of the 17 aid workers in the East. The country until now has neither been able to erase the ill-repute gained nor is there a sign of its being able to clear its name in the near future.
No independent investigations have been held on any of these killings. After the assassination of the parliamentarian Ravi Raj, in order to pretend one’s innocence, there was a media hype about inviting ‘Scotland Yard’ to investigate the assassination. But soon that proved to be only an empty exercise.
Further, when even the international community is very clear about the fact that only through power distribution and not through war that a solution could be found to the present crisis, we are ashamed to see that the government is purposefully delaying a political solution.
Many in this government have an allergy towards human rights issues so much that they even resent the involvement of the UN Human Rights Commission as a foreign intervention. Therefore, as members of civil society in this land, we urge the government to investigate these killings through an international committee or organization.