- Kumar Ponnambalam
Kumar Ponnambalam (
August 12 ,1940 -January 5 ,2000 ) was a prominent defence lawyer and a controversialminority Tamil nationalist politician fromSri Lanka . He was shot dead by unknown gunmen immediately after a suspectedLTTE suicide bomb attack against the then presidentChandrika Kumaratunga .ref|1Biography
Kumar Ponnambalam was born in capital city of
Colombo to an affluent and politically influentialminority Sri Lankan Tamil family. His fatherG. G. Ponnambalam was also a prominent defense attorney and the leader ofAll Ceylon Tamil Congress , a party that was at times an ally of the ruling majority Sinhalese dominatedUnited National Party in opposition to the Tamil Nationalistic tone of other Tamil political parties.Ref|6Kumar Ponnambalam joined his father's Tamil Congress Party as a young politician, and eventually rose to its senior leadership. However after the demise of founder G. G. Ponnambalam, the party became moribund and had little or no electoral support.Ref|1
Kumar was noted for his appearance on behalf of youth apprehended by the state under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. He would work "pro bona" for both Tamil and Sinhalese clients.
Later on Kumar came to be known for his ardent press statements in support of the
separatist militant groupLTTE during the civil war viz. a vie the moderateTamil United Liberation Front party line of supporting then rulingPeoples Alliance party.His son
Gajen Ponnambalam is a member of the current parliament, representing theTamil National Alliance party. Ref|6Assassination
On the day of his assassination Mr Ponnambalam had been accompanied in his car from home by a Sinhalese man, known only as Shantha, who had become acquainted with him recently. He was shot twice in his car. His body was later found in the car on Ramakrishna Lane in
Wellawatte suburb. Shantha was never apprehended. A previously unknown group, the "National Front Against Terrorism", has claimed responsibility.Ref|4His wife and the rebel group
LTTE accused the government of ordering the murder.Ref|4Ref|5 International groups such as the International Jurists demanded an immediate impartial investigationRef|2Subsequent to the assassination, Tamil prisoners in the Kalutara prison rioted as a protest and 2 were killed in the process quelling it.Ref|3
Investigations
After his shooting in January of 2000 an ex reserve police constable named Sugath Ranasinghe had telephoned the CDB headquarters and informed that he was responsible for giving the contract to two underworld gunmen Moratuwa Saman and Sujeewa to kill Mr. Ponnambalam. Reserve police constable Ranasinghe had had his enlistment in the police cancelled as he had not reported to work for several months [http://lankalibrary.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=656] .
Mahen Ratwatte the controversial son of the then defence minister [http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=8003] and maternal uncle of the then serving president,
General Anuruddha Ratwatte was alleged to have ordered the killing. Moratu Saman was subsequently murdered. [http://www.lankalibrary.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=3007&view=previous&sid=87ac501e362b24f9b67abf7e89668fa7] .It was alleged by theSunday Leader [http://www.tamilcanadian.com/page.php?cat=131&id=1812] that he was shot in an attempt to prevent him from testifying against Mahen Ratwatte.As the Attorney General had ruled that there was insufficient evidence to institute charges for the murder against Mahen Ratwatte as the sole evidence that was available was Sugath Ranasinghe's taped telephone conversation, which cannot be used for prosecution as he remained an accused.
Subsequent to allegations made by SSP Bandula Wickremasinghe as reported as "Startling Revelations of President Chandrika Kumaratunga's efforts to shield murderers of Kumar Ponnambalam and "Satana" Editor Rohana Kumara have been bared" in the prominent weekly magazine Sunday Leader [http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2002/01/13/new14.html] , the Sri Lankan president
Chandrika Kumaratunga denied any involvement and directed the inspector general of police to hold an impartial investigation into the matter. There are no further reports into this murder investigation.See also
*Rape and murder case of Ida Carmelitta
References
*Note|1 [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/592051.stm BBC report on Kumar Ponnamabalam]
*Note|2 [http://www.icj.org/news_multi.php3?id_groupe=2&id_mot=105&lang=en International Jurists report]
*Note|3 [http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/jan2000/prsn-j12.shtml Prison uprising after his death]
*Note|4 [http://brcslproject.gn.apc.org/slmonitor/december99/carn.html Sri Lanka monitor report]
*Note|5 [http://www.eelam.com/freedom_struggle/ltte_press_releases/2000/january/06.html LTTE press release]
*Note|6 [http://transcurrents.com/tamiliana/archives/200 Peaceful protest by members of parliament]External links
* [http://www.tamilnation.org/hundredtamils/kumar.htm Tamilnation's 100 Tamils list]
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