Sri Lanka Peace Secretariat Deputy shot dead

LTTE suspected, President condemns killing

The Deputy Head of the Sri Lanka Peace Secretariat Kethesh Loganathan was shot dead last night by suspect LTTE cadres.

A group of men in a white coloured van shot at Mr Loganathan as he came out of his Vandervet Place home in Dehiwela at 9.30 pm. last night.

He was rushed to the Kalubowila hospital, but was pronounced dead on admission. Hospital sources said he had been shot in the head, and that there were three bullet wounds visible on his skull. Shots were also fired at his chest and lower arm.

President Mahinda Rajapakse told the Sunday Obsever that he condemns the killing, and that the LTTE's continued trend of killing Tamil intellectuals should be brought to the attention of the international community. He expressed his grave concern over the killing of Sri Lanka's Peace Secretariat deputy. Peace Secretariat Chief Dr Palitha Kohona described the murder of his deputy as a barbaric act. He said that "political dissent is insufferable to these people.''

Asked about the personal loss of his deputy, Mr Kohona said "I'm looking at him right now.''

Loganthan was a member of the Tamil delegation to the Thimpu peace talks, and also contributed to the Mangala Moonesinghe Select Committee process tasked at formulating a constitutional solution to the national question.. He was an economics graduate from Georgetown University. In 1996 Loganathan wrote a book "Sri Lanka: Lost opportunities'' which was published by the Centre for Policy Research and Analysis (CEPRA), University of Colombo. He was a board member of the Centre for Policy Alternatives before joining the peace Secretariat.

He was a member of the EPRLF from 1983 to 1994. His dissenting politics did not endear him to the LTTE.