On 27 August,2011,

Forum against war crimes and genocide conducted a public meeting on the topic “South-Asian states and De-humanizing society” in Chennai. The meeting was anchored by Mr.Elango from Save Tamils Movement which saw more than 150 audience gathered against the death penalty practice in India. Many eminent speakers from various backgrounds were present and registered their voice against death penalty practice in India and genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Gana.Kurinji – People Union of Civil Liberation (PUCL):

In 2009, Sri Lanka easily defeated the resolution called for Investigation of Human Rights violation in Sri Lankan war. In contrast, members of UNHRC passed a resolution praising the Sri Lankan state for defeating terrorism. But it will be very difficult for Rajapaksa to easily walk through again in the upcoming UNHRC session in Sep 2011, with the awareness created by Dublin Report, UN Panel Report & Channel 4 video.

In my recent visit to Sri Lanka, I witnessed Sinhalization of Tamil places & construction of Buddha Temples. In Jaffna, Tamils reported that they can’t even file a complaint in Tamil in police stations. Also, I witnessed the militarization of civil administrative posts. Tamil women’s are compelled to work in demining operation. There is a rising call to indict Rajapaksa as war criminal. To distract the people’s attention Indian Government has rejected the mercy petitions of 3 Tamils (Santhan, Perarivaalan & Murugan) who are sentenced to death. It has never been proved that abolishing death penalty increases the criminal activities. Tamil Nadu Government should stop the execution by using the section 161.



Ashish Gupta – PUDR, Delhi:

We are living in a critical situation where the wars are being waged in the name of War on Terror ( Eg Iraq, Afghanistan) or in the name of establishing democracy ( eg.Libya ) by US led NATO forces. Likewise, Sri Lanka’s War against Tamils; it is not against terror as claimed by Sri Lankan government. Cultural identity of Tamils is being destroyed by Sri Lankan forces. UN panel of Experts report accused the Sri Lankan government forces for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the way of heavy shelling in hospitals, schools and No-fire zones. More than 40000 Tamil civilians were brutally killed in the final days of war in May 2009. About 13000 ex-LTTE cadres are illegally detained in unidentified locations. Sinhalisation of place names and construction of Buddha temples are on going in Tamil living areas. Sri Lanka (SL) is advocating its model of operation to crush the opponents. Recently, SL Army conducted a training program in Colombo titled SL’s way of defeating terrorism and about 44 countries participated including India.

While China and Russia has openly supporting Sri Lanka, India continues to keep its silence. India has provided army training, radar supplies, navy monitoring and intelligence support to Sri Lanka. Without India’s diplomatic and military support, SL couldn’t have won the war. We should debate India’s role in Sri Lankan genocide war and India’s foreign policy towards Sri Lanka to be questioned.

The People’s Union for Democratic Rights, Delhi (PUDR) is deeply distressed by the President’s rejection of the appeal for mercy for the three accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. The three accused, Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan had been awarded the death penalty in 1997 by the TADA Court and the same was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 1999.

The trial of the accused was conducted in a TADA court with all the associated biases of altered procedures and that TADA permitted. Hearing the appeal, the Supreme Court had acquitted the accused from the charges under TADA. (pa. 59, 61, 67 1999 (5) SCC 253, Nalini & ors. Vs Union of India).Yet the fact that the trial was conducted under TADA unfairly affected those accused.



TADA specifically barred appeal to the High Court. Thus the accused were denied one of the two appeals that are available to every person sentenced to death. TADA also permitted the admissibility of confessions to the police as evidence. Normal law disallows such confessionals since these are routinely taken through torture. The atmosphere surrounding a TADA court and the impact it has on even the judicial mind, let alone that of the opinion makers in society, weighs the scales heavily against the accused.

The Supreme Court judgment also clearly records that the accused had no intention to kill any person other than Rajiv Gandhi. The Court records that the motivation of the accused was to avenge the atrocities committed by the IPKF in Sri Lanka. Given this fact alone, there is little to fear a repeat of similar crime or to reason today crime does not .

Today, when the President on the advice of the Union Cabinet has rejected the mercy appeal, there are many more reasons to be sympathetic to the mercy appeal:

1. Exemplary conduct has been exhibited by the accused during their 20 years in prison. Perarivalan completed his BCA and is pursuing the MCA course. He has helped educate many illiterate and semi-literate prisoners, has helped many in passing their Class 10, 12 and even graduate level exams, has formed a musical troupe teaching both instrumental and vocal music. Prisoners taught by him have formed a “Perarivalan Kalvi Paasarai” which is assisting children from poor and impoverished background to get education. Murugan passed the BCA and MCA as well as certificate courses in Radio & TV mechanics and two wheeler engine mechanics. He is a talented painter and an exhibition of his paintings was inaugurated by the former Director General Prisons. Santhan has written numerous poems, short stories and novels. One novel was highly acclaimed in Tamil literary circles and his poems have been published in many magazines. He also tends to the temple in the prison and conducts the daily pujas. The three prisoners have not been accused of committing any prison offence or come for any adverse notice by the prison officials in their 20 years on stay there.

2. There has been a delay of 12 years in the examining of the mercy petition. This has led to the three prisoners undergoing a sentence of life imprisonment. The orders of execution being readied today amount to a second penalty for the same crime. It has been established by the courts that delay in execution is sufficient ground for commutation.

Today there are a large numbers of people in Tamil Nadu appealing to the government to spare the lives of these three prisoners. Given the compassion shown by society at large it is only logical that the Sovereign in a democratic order should value this sentiment.

PUDR therefore appeals to the Governor and to the Government of Tamil Nadu to show compassing in sparing the lives of the three prisoners. The killing of these three persons serves no social objective today. Sparing them would in fact protect the citizens of our country from the ill-effects of promoting of revenge as a justifiable objective.

Prof Manivannan (Madras University):

The need for the forum against war crimes and genocide is to create awareness about the 60 years of war against Tamils in Sri Lanka. India could have stopped the war in Sri Lanka but didn’t stop the war. India was aware of the mass killings of Tamils during the final stages of war. India has supported Sri Lanka’s war by providing ‘small weapons’, radar systems and military intelligence via satellite imagery services. Even now, India is not ready to speak about war crimes rather Indian Prime Minister said he is concerned with the rehabilitation of 2.60 lakhs Tamils displaced in the war. Many termed the 2009 war as the last Eezham war; but it is not so. Only the armed struggle came to an end; but the political struggle will continue till liberation of Tamil Eelam. After the Mullivaaikkal massacre, the reconciliation between two nationalities Tamils and Sinhalese is not possible. The forum will take forward any political struggle across the world not only restricted to human rights violations. The forum will demand white paper report on India’s Foreign policy towards Sri Lanka even after the change of government if any.The forum will work towards bringing a national voice against war crimes and genocide such that no other nationalities should suffer like Eezham Tamils.

While the pressure mounts for the international investigation of war crimes in Sri Lanka, the Indian government rejected the mercy petition of Santhan, Perarivalan and Murugan filed 11 years ago. The question arises why today at this crucial time period. These three Tamils have already served their sentence in prison for more than 21 years. Now, the death penalty execution will be a multiple punishment for a convict which is against the law. In the end of April 2009, Priyanka replied to question about forgiving convicts of her father killers in an interview with NDTV’s Barkha Dutt that forgiving is natural quality of human being and we forgive them. This interview held at the time of heavy shelling of hospitals, schools and No fire zones in Sri Lanka. As the death penalty is itself a crimes against humanity, the forum is always against death penalty.

Advocate Chandrasekhar, APCLC:

At the time of crisis situation, where we are always on the run for everything, I’m very glad to see the youth audience. Today, we are free to communicate but finds difficult to fight; we are impotent to fight. Margaret Thatcher once said in British Parliament that society is dead and there are only individuals. I understood all the people gathered here are fully convinced that death penalty needs to be abolished. Now, the mercy petitions of Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan were rejected by the President of India and the execution orders were served and the date of execution fixed as 9^th September 2011. But, still we can save these three men. In the current reality, only rich peoples sentenced to death can lobby the government through MPs or Ministers and can get rid of the death penalty. But, the poor peoples like Perarivalan, Santhan and Murugan don’t have any persons to lobby for them.

In the case of Perarivalan, he was sentenced to death on the basis of his confession statement given to a police officer stating he bought 9 V battery used in the bomb. However, the Supreme Court declared that killing of Rajiv Gandhi can’t be booked under TADA.Only in TADA cases, the confession statement given to police officer is valid just like in British India. It is not valid in the normal cases as per Indian Penal Codes. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court Judges considered the confession statement to police officer and sentenced Perarivalan to death. This needs to be reviewed again by the court.

The Supreme Court of India earlier declared that hanging to death is the only mode of operation with less pain after examining the various modes of execution of death penalty. The hanging with less pain itself requires some expertise person to execute and the perfect hanging facilities in prison both are not available in Vellore Prison. In that scenario, the execution of this trio would be an act of torture to death and it is against UN human rights charter. From my own experience of saving two dalit boys from hanging in the final hours in 1995 in Rajamundri, three crucial points helped them away from hanging. They are : 1) second mercy petition 2) Dalit identity politics raised by Sathyamurthy and 3) lobby work by Rajni Kothrai having close ties with the then Indian Prime Ministers.

The suggestion to save these three Tamils are : 1) find a way to file second mercy petition 2) file a case citing the Vellore jail lacks trained men and facilities to hang with less pain and hanging in this jail is against Supreme Court order . This hanging would be a torture to death and it is against UN human rights charter; 3) file an appeal in courts citing the 11 years delay in rejecting mercy petition; 4) Form a movement to “Raise Tamil Nationality sentiments” among the public by calling “How Delhi Sultans can hang Tamils ?”

Senthilkumar, Save Tamils Movement

The historic-political link exists between the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka and the mercy plea rejection of three Tamils in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. States almost made the society as de-humanized one and the society is insensitive now.

Two years back, a war was waged against Tamils in Sri Lanka with the name “War on Terror”. India said that ‘The war should be waged’ and provided all kinds of monetary, military and diplomatic support to Sri Lanka. U.N. report observed that more than 40,000 civilians could have been killed in the war and the peoples’ tribunal of Dublin stated that there is a possibility of genocide. Local estimates from Tamil’s area say that the status of 1,46,000 civilians are really not known.

The documentary film “Killing fields of Sri Lanka” which was telecasted in Channel 4 has exposed the injustices done against the Tamils. The footages of naked bodies of sexually assaulted Tamil women being thrown like meat pieces and the ruthless killing of civilians like street dogs by the Army were shown. The same documentary was telecasted in Headlines Today also. Another documentary called ‘I witnessed genocide’ was also shown in Headlines today.

We are moving on with such insensitivity even after viewing and listening to the facts and stories of a genocide in which lakhs of people were killed. There is no guilt in us even though we know that arms were supplied for the genocide using our tax money.

Murugan, Perarivalan and Santhan for the Rajiv Gandhi murder case, Afzal Guru for the Parliamentary attack case, and Devindar Pal Singh of Punjab were all sentenced to death. The President of India recently rejected their mercy pleas and has sent them to the gallows.

Most of them who are waiting to get hanged have spent more than 20 years in jail. Capital punishment has been abolished in 130 countries. But an ugly event of the nation as a whole, marking the date for strangulating a man is about to happen in a country where Buddha was born. These things would not even have appeared as news to our eyes. Even if it was known to us, it wouldn’t have touched our hearts.

Doesn’t count if we are realizing it or not, but we are slowly losing human values. This is not a single man’s crime. The states here are de-humanizing us in a systematic way. One day this would make us naked animals. Let us think and Act now!

We should march towards Madras High Court on coming Tuesday (30 August 2011). We should work towards abolishing Death Penalty in India.

Comrade Thiyagu, Tamil Nation Liberation Movement

First of all I would like to mention that Justice Suresh had never ordered a death penalty in his 11 year tenure as a judge. I’ve fully read the judgment order of Rajiv Gandhi Assassination case many times. There are number of contradictions in the judgment order itself.

The factors generally considered before sentencing a convict to Death penalty are: a) the age of convict (younger ones should not be awarded death penalty), b) past history of crimes (first time offender should not be sentenced to death) and c) any evidence showing that convict will affect the society and terrorize the people once come out of prison.

Unfortunately the Supreme Court didn’t consider all the above mentioned factors genuinely but considered only the ‘high profile’ and ‘popularity’ of the victim (Rajiv Gandhi) killed in the case. The Court says that death penalty will be awarded only in the rarest of rare crimes but there is no clear definition, only depends on the judge. In the judgment, Justice Wadhwa and Justice Thomas are praising Rajiv Gandhi at many places. The judges should be neutral while delivering the judgment. The judgment itself is trying to create a pure fiction about Rajiv – Jayawardene agreement in 1987.Tamils should understand their potential and fought for justice of these three Tamils. These three lives are of us.

Retd. Justice Suresh, Mumbai

First of all I would like to mention that even though I don’t understand Tamil language; I can understand the deep anger and sentiments of Tamils. As a human rights defender, it is my duty to show solidarity with Tamils in their protest against hanging three Tamils. I’ve met the Perarivalan’s mother 3-4 years ago. I read the case of Perarivalan fully and I understood he is innocent. Also, I wrote foreword in his book of appeal strongly recommending his release. Being a part of Campaign against Death Penalty for long years, I strongly oppose the death penalty of these three Tamils (Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan). The death penalty is violations of the human rights as per international laws. It is nothing but the state killings. The state has no right to take anybody’s life. About 60% of the world has abolished the death penalty. It is right time for India to abolish death penalty and it is the duty of rights activists to urge India to do so.

Keeping a sword over one’s head for prolonged 20 years and to decide to hang him all of a sudden is nothing but a torture which is against international laws. Government must reply to a question of why there was a delay of more than 11 years for deciding on mercy petition.

Sweden follows a different system of conviction and punishment. A separate body comprising professors, rights activists, teachers, lawyers will examine the convicted person through direct conversation with them and their families. Based on their examination, the body will define the sentence or rehabilitation programme for the convicts. The basis of the system is that a judge cannot decide on the convict as an individual and a separate mechanism to examine him. India should also consider similar kind of judicial system.

After watching Channel 4 documentary film “Sri Lanka’s Killing fields” in Headlines Today, I could not sleep for days. It raised two questions before us: What we have to do? And What India has to do? After the visit to Gujarat as part of an enquiry team to investigate the 2002 communal riots, we have submitted a report to Home Ministry clearly stating it as genocide. But there was no action on the report. On one occasion, Mr Shivraj Patil, then Home Minister asked me how to deal with this kind of genocide cases in future. I advised the Home Minister to enact a law against genocide in India being a signatory to UN laws. After the bad experience of genocide, Rwanda and Yugoslavia enacted a separate law to deal the genocide. India should enact a similar law to handle genocide cases in India.

An individual can file a case of genocide / war crimes against any individual in any part of the world. Some activists in UK filed a case against Narendra Modi for his role in genocide in 2002 which kept Modi out of UK since then. Similar kind of case can be filed against Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in any part of the world. If required, I’m very much available to be part of the legal team preparing the writ. This will keep Rajapaksa to restrict his international tours.