Temple Leader tells harrowing ordeal with LTTE to British public

LONDON, APRIL 16: British newspapers published locally in Harrow and Edgware narrate the heart-rendering story that Rajasingham Jeyadevan and A.K. Vivekanandan who were duped into to visit Vanni, the stronghold of the Tamil terrorists outfit and the details of their arrest, incarceration, torture and captivity and held incommunicado for 62 and 42 torturous days respectively.

The harrowing episode depicts the modus operandi of the separatist terrorists, the proscribed terrorist outfit in the United Kingdom under the Terrorism Act of 2000, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), that operates still in the United Kingdom under the leadership and guidance of Anton Balasingham, who had time and again claimed himself as the only Tamil Tiger in United Kingdom, use to throw baits to the British Tamil residents and citizens who opposes them and cunningly send them to Vanni in Sri Lanka, the LTTE's stronghold to be arrested, dumped in their notorious prisons, held isolated, tortured and at times bumped off in Vanni.

This was the first time the British public was able to learn of the terrorists as well as terrorist supporters who live in their midst, how they operate and take revenge on those who refuse to keep their mouth shut and who boldly come forward to exercise their basic human rights though they were continuously threatened over the telephone and by hate mails.

Harrow Times, a weekly free paper dated April 14, circulated in the London three boroughs of Harrow, Brent & Barnet, carried a news item "Temple leader tells of capture by Tamil Tigers", a report filed by its staffer James Brockett. Also the same article appeared in Edgware Times under the headline, My Tamil Terror.

Below the full text of the news report in Harrow Times- "Temple leader tells of capture by Tamil Tigers" by James Brockett.

The Chairman of a Hindu temple in Wembley who was kidnapped by the Tamil Tigers and held hostage for two months has spoken this week of his ordeal. Rajasingham Jeyadevan, 50, who runs the Eelapatheeswaran Aalayam Temple in Union Road, Wembley, visited his native Sri Lanka with a friend in January to help with the tsunami relief effort.

A qualified accountant from Edgware who has lived in Britain for 30 years. Jeyadevan contacted the leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) hoping to discuss aid to the Tamil-administered areas of the island. Jeyadevan and his friend A.K. Vivekamanthan, were staying in a guest house with LTTE minders when events took a turn for the worse.

He said: "We were promised a meeting with Castro, the Tigers' spokesman on Finance and International Affairs but we were told he was too busy and after days of waiting, nothing was happening. Then at about 4 p.m., a car pulled up with dark windows and a man got out and told us Castro would now see us. We got in and they took us on a long drive of 35 or 40 miles.

We knew his office was only nearby, so we were feeling more and more uneasy." What the pair did not know was that a rival faction at home, jealous of Jeyadevan's wealth and his successful temple, had complained to the Tigers' leadership about him in advance of his visit.

Although Jeyadevan is a Tamil nationalist, he had resisted LTTE influence on his temple after the party were declared illegal by the Terrorism Act.

He said: "We were taken to a derelict compound with a high fence. We got out and had no idea where we were. The man told us to co-operate and that he had heard of our conduct in London. He kept on asking us for a statement, but I had no idea what he meant. Then he went away again and left us under the guard of four LTTE soldiers."

With no contact to the outside world, the two men were left for 42 days, and were repeatedly grilled by interrogators from Tamil Intelligence. They slept in small rooms with holes in the roof infested by grubs and insects, and the water tank they had to drink from had a dead rat in it. Jeyadevan was denied the drugs he needs for his gland problem, and became very ill.

"It dragged on and on. On February 16 five weeks into their captivity we were told we would be released but there would be conditions. They wanted the temple transferred to a nominee's name and we both had to give our consent.

It was evening and we were sitting there in lamplight, so I could hardly read the document. But I knew it would have no legal standing and by then I would have signed anything. They said they could not shoot me because of the Geneva Convention, but they threatened that they would put a snake on my body and let it bite me, so no-one could ever prove anything."

According to the document Jeyadevan signed, his Wembley temple will be handed over to a trust run by Nagendram Seevaratnam, a Tiger-supporting owner of another temple in Tooting. Vivekamanthan was then released and told to carry out the order, while Jeyadevan was kept in solitary confinement for a further 20 days.

During this time he went on hunger strike and took overdoses of steroid pills because he was "literally crying with pain" from his chest. He ate only one meal in almost three weeks. Eventually, after the temple was transferred and the British Foreign Office applied pressure, he was driven to a border post and set free after 62 days.

He said: "I don't think I can ever return to Sri Lanka, at any rate, not without a UN escort. I went with good intentions to see those fellows - I am patriotic to my community and my mother and brother died in the war. But the Tamil Tigers want to take over the Tamil organisations, wherever they are. We cannot let them do this and I do not want to see this happen to another Tamil."

Last Thursday (April 7) the High Court ruled that the document Jeyadevan signed under duress was invalid, and Seevaratnam's supporters were made to hand back control of the temple to him and the other trustees. A police investigation is continuing.

- Asian Tribune