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[Sheila MESA <smm@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches
Press Release
For Immediate Use
18 September 1997

CENTRAL COMMITTEE     No.  11

WCC CALLS ON SRI LANKA PRESIDENT FOR INQUIRY INTO PASTOR'S
MURDER

The World Council of Churches (WCC) told the President of Sri Lanka
Thursday (Sep. 18) that it was "appalled" by the death of a pastor
whose body was found 13 days after he was detained by Sri Lankan
security forces.  The WCC condemned "the apparent gross misconduct"
of the armed forces and called for an immediate  judicial commission into
"this murder", and for its authors to be brought to justice.

A letter from the WCC to President H.E. Chandrika Kumaratunga said that
it was "profoundly distressed" at the death of the Rev. Innasi Arulpalan,
the 43-year-old pastor of Konavil Church in Kilinochi District.  After news
was later received that two lay church workers had died with Mr
Arulpalan, the WCC called for their murders to be included in the inquiry.

The letter, signed by the Rev. Dwain Epps, the WCC's coordinator of
public affairs, says that according to its information, Mr Arulpalan was
detained by security forces on August 27 while visiting a church farm at
Shalomnagar, Murippu.  Prompt enquiries by church officials as to his
whereabouts received no satisfactory response.  On September 9, with
the help of the International Red Cross, his body was found near the
farm.

A WCC spokesman said Thursday that Mr Arulpalan, a Church of South
India minister and a Tamil, had gone to the farm with the parish workers,
a 45-year-old man and his 17-year-old son, to collect palm leaves for a
roofing project.  The pastor, who was married with no children, was not
wearing clerical dress because he was travelling by motorcycle and did
not want his cassock to get dirty.  The spokesman said that one local
theory was that as Mr Arulpalan had two deformed fingers, the security
forces may have thought he had injured them while fighting with the
Tamil rebels.

The WCC letter says: "The Council is appalled by this incident and the
apparent gross misconduct of the Sri Lankan armed forces.  In view of
the gravity of the circumstances surrounding Mr Arulpalan's death, we
urgently request immediate steps to set up a judicial commission,
comprising a judge of the Superior Court, to enquire into the
circumstances leading to this murder, and that the authors of this crime
be brought to justice without delay. We would be grateful to hear what
steps have been taken in this matter and what measures are taken to
ensure that the leaders of Mr Arulpalan's church are given official
protection."

The WCC spokesman said that the Church of South India has kept lines
of communication open to the Tamil population in the North, and in the
past its headquarters in the South have been raided by the authorities.

**********
The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 330, in
more than 100 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions.  The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but
works cooperatively with the WCC.  The highest governing body is the
Assembly, which meets approximately every seven years.  The WCC
was formally inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.  Its staff is
headed by general secretary Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church
in Germany.

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