Chandra Fernando (August 9, 1942 – June 6, 1988) was a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

from the town of Baticaloa in minority

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

-dominated eastern province of

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. He was known for his human rights activism. He was

assassinated Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

by unknown men on June 6, 1988.

Biography

Chandra Fernando, born in 1942 in Fernandos Lane, Puliyantheevu (presently called

Batticaloa Batticaloa (, ''Maṭṭakkaḷappu'', ; , ''Maḍakalapuwa'', ) is a major city in the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, and its former capital. It is the administrative capital of the Batticaloa District. The city is the seat of the Eastern Univers ...

Town), was primarily educated at St. Michael's College National School and ordained as Catholic Priest in the year 1970. He served as a Parish Priest at St. Mary’s Co-cathedral, Batticaloa from 1984 to June 6, 1988.

Death

He was killed by unknown gunmen on June 6, 1988, in his own church (St. Mary’s Co-Cathedral) when the city was under the administration of

Indian Peace Keeping Force Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was the Indian military contingent performing a peacekeeping operation in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990. It was formed under the mandate of the 1987 Indo-Sri Lankan Accord that aimed to end the Sri Lanka ...

per the Indo-Lanka peace accord of 1985. He was the secretary of the local Batticalao Citizens Committee and was instrumental in highlighting human rights violations by all sides in the Sri Lankan civil war including the rebel

LTTE The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; , ; also known as the Tamil Tigers) was a Tamil militant organization, that was based in the northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam ...

group which was at that time battling the

(IPKF) and aligned

para-military A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

groups. There were many human rights violations committed by all including the authority in power. Although according to a report by the pro-LTTE

Tamilnet TamilNet is an online newspaper that provides news and feature articles on current affairs in Sri Lanka, specifically related to the erstwhile Sri Lankan Civil War. The website was formed by members of the Sri Lankan Tamil community residing in ...

, he was killed by a gunman belonging to the paramilitary group Peoples Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) organization working for the local

Indian Army The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...

administration, but according to David Jeyaraj, an ethnic Sri Lankan Tamil journalist based in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, he was killed by the operatives of the paramilitary group Eelam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF). This seems to be corroborated by independent sources.

References

External links

SITUATION UPDATE FROM SRI LANKA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fernando, Chandra Sri Lankan Tamil people Minority rights activists Assassinated Sri Lankan activists 20th-century Sri Lankan Roman Catholic priests 1942 births 1988 deaths Deaths by firearm in Sri Lanka People murdered in Sri Lanka 20th-century Roman Catholic martyrs Alumni of St. Michael's College National School Indian Peace Keeping Force

Biography

Death

See also

References

External links