JAFFNA, Sri Lanka: A 38-year-old Tamil man from Jaffna died early on Saturday, Oct. 3, in a house fire in a suburb northeast of Paris while visiting relatives, according to French news reports and people familiar with his family.
Jaffna Monitor has confirmed the man's identity as Rexson Selvarasa, 38, originally from Jaffna. He was born on July 16, 1988.
Mr. Selvarasa was a vocalist, and people who knew him described him as a known supporter of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The LTTE, which fought the Sri Lankan state for an independent Tamil homeland, was defeated militarily in 2009 and remains banned in Sri Lanka.
The fire broke out at about 1:30 a.m. in a two-story house on Rue Cristino-Garcia in La Courneuve, in the Seine-Saint-Denis department, the French newspaper Le Parisien reported. The man who died did not live at the house and had been visiting his family there, the newspaper said. He was unable to escape.
About 40 firefighters and six fire engines were sent to the scene. Firefighters brought the fire fully under control at about 2:45 a.m. and then found the man's body, badly burned, inside the house, according to Le Parisien.
The newspaper reported that the cause of the fire had not been established and remained under investigation.
French news reports did not name the victim or identify him as Sri Lankan. Their account of the fire, including that the man was visiting relatives and was found inside the house after the blaze was put out, matches the information given to Jaffna Monitor by people familiar with Mr. Selvarasa's family.
News of his death has been met with grief among relatives and residents of Navanthurai and Melinchimunai, where his family has its roots.
