Joseph Pararajasingham
Encyclopedia
Joseph Pararajasingham (November 27, 1934-December 25, 2005) was a Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

n Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 and a poet who was known for his pro-Tamil Tiger views and advocacy of human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

. Pararajasingham was a founding member of the North East Human Rights Secretariat NESHOR.




Pararajasingham became a member of the Sri Lankan Parliament
Parliament of Sri Lanka
The Parliament of Sri Lanka is the 225-member unicameral legislature of Sri Lanka. The members of Parliament are elected by proportional representation for six-year terms, with universal suffrage. Parliament reserves the power to make all laws...

 in 1990 and joined the Tamil National Alliance
Tamil National Alliance
The Tamil National Alliance is a powerful minority Sri Lankan Tamil political alliance in Sri Lanka. It was formed as an amalgamation of moderate Tamil parties as well as number of former rebel groups...

, a pro-rebel party. UTHR and Inter-Parliamentary Union have both claimed that he was assassinated by TMVP.

Assassination

He was assassinated in 2005 while attending a Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

 midnight mass
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...

 at St Mary's church in Batticaloa
Batticaloa
Batticaloa is a city in the Eastern province of Sri Lanka. It is the seat of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka. It is on the east coast, south by south east of Trincomalee, and is situated on an island.-Etymology:...

, some 190 miles (306 km) east of the Sri Lankan capital city of Colombo
Colombo
Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...

. Gunmen opened fire on Pararajasingham just after he received communion
Eucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...

, killing him and injuring eight others, including his wife.

It is unclear who assassinated Mr. Pararajasingham, and the assassination is one of the 15 cases to be investigsated by the Commission of Inquiry into alleged serious human rights abuses warranted by President Rajapakse in September 2006, and whose investigations will be observed by an International Independent Groups of Eminent Persons (IIGEP
IIGEP
The International Independent Group of Eminent Persons, abbreviated to IIGEP, was a group of individuals nominated by international donor countries and the government of Sri Lanka, vested with a wide mandate to observe all investigations and inquiries conducted by and on behalf of the Commission of...

).

The Government provided details of the case to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, stating that only Mrs Pararajasingham and his personal security officer (who the Batticalao police provided) knew of his decision to attend the Christmas Eve Mass, and this was only revealed when they arrived in Batticalao that morning.

They also stated that St Mary's Church is located in a High Security Zone, between 2 military checkpoints and that the church was reportedly "surrounded" by military personnel, concluding that the culprits could only have escaped with the complicity of the security forces.

They also noted that Mr Pararajasingham's family gave the name of 3 suspects, yet no action has been taken against them. It was also reported, that it was "public knowledge" that a member of the Karuna Group TMVP, was one of the assassins, yet no action has been taken.

Further UTHR ,a local human rights organization, claimed the pro governmentTMVP and EPDP cadres were the assailants.
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