MASSACRES

1.      On 19 March, 2001 about 10 Navy personnel entered a private lodge in Uppukulam, Mannar at 10.30pm and arrested two women, Wigikala Nathakumar 22 years, an expectant mother already with one child and Sivamani Arjunan, 24 years, mother of three children. They had been living in camps for internally displaced people in Vavuniya and were in Mannar on private business. On the way to the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) in Mannar, the Navy personnel started to make sexual advances towards these helpless women. On arriving at the SIU at 11.30pm, Wigikala was taken in a room and forcefully stripped naked by Navy and SIU personnel. Her hands were tied, she was pushed onto a table and sexually assaulted in so inhuman and so brutal ways. Two of her assailants brutally raped her repeatedly.

2.    Meanwhile, Sivamani who had been kept in the vehicle used by the Navy (a white van) was also stripped naked by the Navy personnel and sexually molested. One of them blindfolded her with his stocking. The driver of the van held Sivamani's hands behind and a member of the SLN raped her. After a while, Sivamani was made to dress again and was taken inside the SIU, to the same room as Wigikala. Sivamani was forcibly stripped again and brutally sexually assaulted by all present in the room, while other Navy personnel looked on through openings in the walls. Their cries could only be heard by the detainees at the SIU. In tears, the women told me about their trauma when I visited them with a sister in the prison lock-up in Mannar on 27 March. They told me they could identify most of these criminals; they mentioned frequently the names of one Raja (a Tamil-speaking one) and of one Wimal of the SIU, who had been even more brutal than the others. They also said the person they came to know as the Officer in Charge (OIC) of the SIU also took part in this brutality.

     The victims were then threatened with further torture and were forced to sign a statement to say they were from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Three days later, they were taken to the District Medical Officer (DMO) in Mannar. The women had been told by the SIU that they would be killed if they revealed anything to the DMO. So out of fear, being in the presence of the SIU, they told the DMO they had no complaints to make and were briskly taken away by the SIU. This is how the medical examination of these poor victims was made to end up. They were brought before the Mannar Magistrate only on 27 March at 6.30pm. On my appeal to the Magistrate and to the Deputy Provincial Director of Health Service (DPDHS) of Mannar in the name of the public, a fresh medical examination of these two unfortunate victims was undertaken by the DMO of Mannar on 30 March.

2. On 13 March, the Navy at Thalaimannar assaulted inhumanly seven fishermen with wires and hard logs, resulting in large lacerations. One victim was beaten with wires and boots and his condition was near fatal. The fishermen were brought to the DMO, Mannar, and he has his report of these brutal assaults by the Navy. No further action was taken by the victims, who feared more torture by Navy personnel. The Navy in Mannar very commonly resorts to torture. This and other human rights violations perpetrated by some of the other Armed Forces mean that victims are brought to hospital almost daily. The helpless victims are unwilling to be taken out of Mannar for better treatment as they fear for their safety. Almost all such incidents are hushed up with no action taken against criminal elements of the Security Forces for fear of more serious consequences at their inhuman hands.

3. On 28 March at 10pm, Navy personnel took into custody one Kandaiah Uthayakumar of Chavakadu, Mannar aged 42, father of seven children, the only breadwinner in this large displaced family. The Navy handed over his dead body to the Mannar Base Hospital at 3pm. His death was due to hypoxia following strangulation by Navy personnel. An eyewitness, the victim's daughter, saw navy personnel strangling her father already at the time of arrest.

Suppression of the Tamil People and their Rights, including the right to self-determination.

BACKGROUND

"Two different nations, from a very ancient period, have divided between them the possession of the Island: the Sinhalese inhabiting the interior in its Southern and western parts from the river Wallouwe to Chilaw, and the Malabars (Tamils) who possess the Northern and Eastern Districts. These two nations differ entirely in their religion, language and manners." - Sir Hugh Cleghorn, British Colonial Secretary, June 1879

"As to the qualification required in the knowledge of the native languages, the Portuguese and Sinhalese only being mentioned excludes one which is fully necessary in the Northern Districts as the Sinhalese in the South. I mean the Tamil language, commonly called the Malabar language, which with a mixture of Portuguese in use through all the provinces is the proper native tongue of the inhabitants from Puttalam to Batticaloa northward inclusive of both these districts.. Your Lordship will therefore, I hope have no objection to my putting Tamil on an equal footing of encouragement with the Sinhalese" - Sir Robert Brownrigg, Governor of Ceylon, 1813 Dispatch to the British Colonial Secretary of State, Reported in the Tribune, 12 January 1956)

The island of Sri Lanka has historically been divided into two territories. In the South there were one or more Sinhalese Kingdoms and in the Northeast the Tamil Kingdom. These Kingdoms co-existed peacefully till they were conquered by foreign colonial powers like Portuguese, Dutch and British in that order.

The Tamil people of the island of Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka) constitute a distinct nation. They form a social entity, with their own history, traditions, culture, language and traditional homeland. The Tamil people call their nation Tamil Eelam.

60 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE FOR SINHALESE BUT SLAVERY FOR TAMILS

1. Sri Lanka celebrated its 60th Independence Day on February 4th which coincided with Tamils losing their basic rights and freedom to the Sinhalese majority exactly 60 years ago.

2. Not surprisingly, while Sinhalese celebrate their independence Tamils observed February 4th as a black day at home and in Diaspora.

3. Sixty (60) years of oppression of Tamils forced almost a million Tamil people to flee Sri Lanka and live in Diaspora LIKE Canada, America, Australia, Europe, India and many other countries in the world. About half a million Tamil people are internally displaced and live in temporary shelters with limited access to food, medicine, healthcare, education in Northeast of Sri Lanka.

4. Sri Lanka obtained independence in 1948, when the British handed power to the majority Singhalese and left the Tamils' fate in the hands of the Sinhalese. Since then all successive Sinhalese governments have gradually and systematically reduced Tamils to second-class citizens in their country of birth.
5. The enactment of a myriad of discriminatory and racially motivated legislative acts since independence (1948) has made Tamils second class citizens.

6. In the very first year of independence, a million strong Tamils of Indian origin were deprived of their citizenship and franchise rights.

7. In 1956, 'Sinhala Only Act of 1956 was enacted by the late S.W.R.D. Bandaranayke making Sinhala the only official language. Tamil was relegated to “Reasonable Use Only” status.

8. During the 1970 s university admissions were standardized in terms of Universities Act No.16 of 1978. This Act effectively shut the door to Tamil students aspiring for university education. The cut-off marks for entry into Universities was reduced for Sinhalese students and increased for Tamil students.

9. During this period, several pacts signed between Tamils and Sinhalese were un-ceremoniously torn off by Sinhalese politicians. The 1957 Bandaranayake-Chelvanayakam Pact was abrogated due to opposition by Buddhist monks and the main opposition United National party led by J.R. Jayewardene.

10. In 1965, Dudley Senanayake, Prime Minister and S.J.V. Chelvanayakam leader of the Federal Party signed a pact popularly known as the D-C Pact, which was never implemented and was abrogated in 1969.

11.A new Constitution drafted and adopted in 1972 removed the only constitutional safeguard for the minority communities incorporated in the Soulbury constitution.

12.The 13th Amendment effected following the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement signed in 1987 became dysfunctional in the Northeast – the very province it was meant to serve.

13.The legitimate liberation struggle of Tamils in Sri Lanka is being manipulated by the Sri Lankan government as part of ‘Global War on Terror' and brand the LTTE and LTTE supporters as “terrorists.”

14.Unfortunately, labeling of the LTTE as a terrorist organization by Canada, US, EU and others have embolden the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to declare war on Tamil people under the guise of fighting “Terrorism.”

15.LTTE has been fighting for the self determination right of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. One cannot equate the international terrorism and the Tamil people's liberation struggle. LTTE has been fighting to ensure the self-determination rights of Tamil people in terms of Convention on International Human Rights. This is not terrorism.

16.Sri Lanka is being governed by use of emergency laws almost continuously since 1983 and the Tamils have borne the brunt of worst forms of human rights abuses like abductions for ransoms, disappearances, extra-judicial killings, shelling, bombing, cordon and search arrests, torture, ethnic cleansing, sexual harassments and physical attacks.

17.The GoSL under President Mahinda Rajapakse is relentlessly pursuing the military option despite pleas by the international community that there is no military solution to a political problem. The abrogation of CFA (Ceasefire Agreement) has plunged the country into a full scale war. Sinhala racism – the claim the Sinhalese – Buddhists – are chosen people of Buddha - is the underlying cause of the ethnic conflict.

18.For three decades the Tamil people worked towards equal rights through the process of non-violent demonstrations, as taught by Mahatma Gandhi and other ambassadors of peace. But their nonviolence was directly answered with military force by Sinhalese dominated regimes.

19.Successive Sinhalese dominated governments organised anti-Tamil riots on a regular basis in an attempt to subdue the Tamil's struggle for equal rights. These state sponsored riots took place in 1956, 1958, 1977, 1979, 1981 and 1983. In 1983 the government organised a massive anti-Tamil pogrom that finally ended in having an ethnically divided country. Over 3,000 innocent Tamil civilians died at the hands of government aided and abetted Sinhalese mobs, for no other crime than belonging to the Tamil race.

20.Since the nineteen eighties over 80,000 Tamil civilians have been murdered by the Sri Lanka’s armed forces. Scores of Tamil cities and villages have been reduced to dust and rubble through constant shelling and aerial bombardment.
21.In February 2002 the LTTE and the GoSL signed a CFA leading to peace talks. The peace efforts, with Norwegian facilitation and with the blessings of the international community, took place in the capitals of various countries from Oslo to Tokyo.

22. Like all previous Sinhala regimes, the Wickremasinghe regime dragged time without implementing the clauses in the CFA and the agreements reached at the talks. The armed forces failed to move out of people’s homes, schools and hospitals and instead declared these vast areas of land as High Security Zones (HSZs) out of bounds for Tamil people. The sub-committee for De-escalation and Normalization became dysfunctional. The sub-committee created to solve immediate humanitarian needs of the people also became defunct due to planned sabotage by the government.

23. The Sinhala government has imprisoned the Tamils in their own land after closing its main A9 supply route. Having removed their freedom by restricting their movement and constrained their lives, it is inflicting great suffering on them. It has split the Tamil homeland, set up military camps, bound it with barbed wire, and has converted it into a site of collective torture.

24. Thousands of Tamils mostly in the east have been forced out their homes and are languishing with disease and hunger in refugee camps. More than 4,000 families in around Sampur have been driven out of their homes to create High Security Zones.

25. The Sinhala government has unleashed a two pronged war, military and economic, on the Tamil people. Tamil people are subjected to unprecedented assaults. Arrests, imprisonment, and torture, rape and sexual harassment, murders, disappearance, shelling, aerial bombing, and military offensives are continuing unchecked. At the same time our people are subjected to an inhuman economic embargo on essential items including food and medicine.

26. A government that denies food and medicine to the Tamil people and shows no compassion cannot be expected to give them their political rights.

27. Globalization and monumental growth in knowledge is taking humanity into new frontiers. Ideas, views and philosophies are changing in tandem is resulting in changes in society. Yet, within the Sinhala nation is refusing to broaden its thinking and take a new approach. The Sinhala nation remains mislead by the mythical ideology of the Mahavamsa and remains trapped in the chauvinistic sentiments thus created. Unable to free itself from this mindset, it has adopted Sinhala - Buddhist chauvinistic notions as its dominant national philosophy. This notion is spread in its schools, universities and even its media.

28. The domination of this Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism is preventing its students, intellectuals, and writers from stepping out of and thinking free from its domination. This, unfortunately, is preventing the Sinhala nation from undertaking a genuine attempt at resolving the Tamil national question in a civilized manner.

29. Each time the government changed, the dove of peace moved from one cage to another but it was never able to fly freely. Stabbed many times, the dove is now struggling for its life.

30. When the LTTE submitted its proposal for an Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA), President Chandrika Kumaratunge government took over the reins of power citing threat to national security. The Kumaratunga regime failed to implement even the Joint Mechanism (PTOMS) agreement signed by her regime for tsunami rehabilitation. The Supreme Court, unable to step outside the Sinhala chauvinistic notions, rejected this purely humanitarian focused agreement citing the unitary constitution.

31. After 6 years of fruitless talks failed to change the mindset of the majority Sinhalese. The CFA failed to deliver dividends of much promised peace to the Tamil people. A just and reasonable solution to the national question remains as distant as before. And on January 16, 2008 the GoSL mindlessly and unceremoniously buried the CFA. Since the abrogation of the CFA at the instance of the Jathika Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the floodgates have been opened. The country is now witnessing a full-scale war (Eelam War IV) has broken out between the LTTE and GoSL.

32. The Rajapakse regime now hopes to decide the fate of the Tamil nation using its military power. It wants to occupy the Tamil land and then force a dictated peace to the Tamil people. Towards this goal, it has escalated attacks from land to sea and air. It has given a free hand to the paramilitary groups to kill at will. It has captured the east driving out several thousands of Tamils from their homes. It is using heavy firepower and launched large scale offensives to bring Tamil lands under its control.

33. The political accommodations and trust building necessary to generate an acceptable political solution do not fit well with prosecuting the war against the LTTE to a finish.

34. The Rajapakse regime, while perpetuating genocide of the Tamils, is portraying the legitimate struggle of the Tamil people as terrorism.

35. To improve his posturing as a peace dove, President Rajapakse staged a deceptive ‘All Party Representative Committee’. The Sinhala leaders have practiced this infamous political tradition of initiating commissions of inquiry, parliamentary select committees, all party conferences, or round tables to procrastinate whenever it is unable to face up to a situation and wants to drag time until attention is diverted. Finally on the orders of President Rajapakse the APRC proposed the full implementation of the 13th amendment which is already there in the constitution. This tantamount to prescribing aspirin for 20 years old terminal cancer.

36. It is now crystal clear that the Sinhala leaders will never put forward a just resolution to the Tamil national question.

37. The uncompromising stance of Sinhala chauvinism has left the Tamil people with no other option but an independent state for the people of Tamil Eelam based on the right to self-determination.

A list of showing glaring human rights violations committed by the GoSL is annexed (Annexure 1) to this submission.

ANNEXURE 1

(1) On July 09, 1995 St. Peter's Church, St. Peter's School and the adjoining residential houses were bombed by Sri Lankan air-force fighter planes during operation "Leap Forward". The bombing took place on the very first day of the military offensive and 3 miles away from the theatre of war. One hundred and twenty four (124) people were killed in the mindless bombing, including 65 women and children some less than 6 years of age. The tragedy is all the more weird when it was the Sri Lankan army that exhorted the people to take refuge in churches and schools.

(2) On 22 September, 1995 Nagarkovil Central School in the Jaffna peninsula was bombed during school’s lunch break by Pucara planes killing 25 school children and 15 Tamil civilians on the spot. Of the 25 children 12 were between 6-7 year olds. Nearly 200 others were injured, most of them students of the same school. Elsewhere in the area, 15 other civilians were also killed in the course of the bombing raids. The scene of the attack was visited by the ICRC. Pieces of human flesh were strewn around the area including tree branches, making identification impossible. The total death toll later increased to 71.

(3) On October 01, 1995 8 people were killed and 5 houses destroyed in Mannar when the SLAF planes bombed the area.

(4) On October 02, 1995 6 people killed and another 55 seriously wounded by Artillery Shelling at Valkamam when SLA fired artillery shells in the Valkamam area.

(5) On October 04, 1995 16 Tamil civilians killed and more than 60 wounded in the Jaffna district. At least 8 Tamil civilians were killed and 30 seriously wounded by artillery shelling from SLA camp in Thenmaratchi. Another six killed in Valikamam and other two people killed and more than 30 wounded in Vadamaratchi. On October 05, 1995 eight Tamil civilians were killed and many houses destroyed at Thenmaratchi. Many Tamil houses were looted and artillery fire continued to rain down on the 4th day of Military operation "Thunder" in the Thenmaratchi area.

(6) On October 13, 1995 two Tamil civilians were killed by artillery shelling in Vadamaratchi when the SLA fired artillery shells in the Vadamaratchi area.

(7) On October 19, 1995 fifty-four Tamil civilians killed and several others wounded by aerial bombing and artillery shells fired by the SLA in the Jaffna district. 20 of those were killed in Valikamam and another 15 in Inuvil.

(8) On October 27, 1995 twemty-five Tamil civilians were killed 23 wounded at Ariyalai by repeated aerial strikes by Supersonic planes! A couple married 3 months just 3 months before among those killed.

(9) On September 7, 1996, soldiers and police raped and murdered of Krishanthy Kumaraswamy, murdered her mother Rasamma Kumaraswamy, brother Kumaraswamy Pranavan and neighbour Kirupamoorthi respectively in Chemmani, Jaffna Although crimes like rape and murder committed by men in uniform against unarmed and defenseless Tamil civilians were common during the Northeast war, the rapists and killers of Krishanthy displayed naked barbarism that surpassed all previous crimes. On October 03, 1996 Rajani Velayuthapillai, aged 23 years was detained by the SLA personnel at Kondavil military check-post on her way back from Maanippaii. She was gang raped by soldiers on duty and her body dumped in a pit of an abandoned lavatory near the Kondavil military check-post.

(10) On November, 1996 Thenuka Selvarajah, a 5th grade student at Atchuvely Mahavidyalayam, was abducted and gang raped by army personnel attached to Puttur army camp. Fortunately, the sexually abused and psychologically tormented child escaped her abductors to tell her story to the school principal.

(11) On May 17, 1997 Mrs. Murugesapillai Koneswary, mother of 4 children, of Central Camp, Amparai District was raped and killed by an unknown number of armed men in uniform at her home. The soldiers exploded a hand grenade placing it on her private part apparently to destroy all evidence of gang rape.

(12) On March 17, 1997 Velan Rasammah (38) a widow and her sister Nalliah Dharshini (28) were raped by four army soldiers at Thannamunai, a village 6 km north of Batticaloa.

(13) On March 22, 1997 the police opened fire at a middle-aged couple in Batticaloa. Mrs. Mervyn Ockerz (52) who was shot in the head died on the spot. Her husband Kingsley Ockerz (55) was seriously wounded.

(14) On April 1999, Thambiaiyah Suntheralingam, 23, was arrested and taken into custody by the army at Navatkuda. The Batticaloa JMO who examined Suntharalingam on July 12, 1999 said in his report submitted to the court on August 02, that the youth had been beaten up severely and hung upside down and that his head had been covered with a plastic bag containing petrol and chilli powder during his detention at the military intelligence camp located in the former tooth powder factory building at Lake Road 2 in Batticaloa town. The DMO also stated in his report that the youth's head had been banged repeatedly on a wall for ten days while he was held at the camp of the Counter Subversive Unit (CSU) in Batticaloa town and that as a result his eardrums had burst and bled severely.

(15) On July 13, 1999 Sithamparapillai Kanakanayakam, 27, of Kokkaddicholai, 16 kilometres southwest of Batticaloa, was arrested by the army while he was visiting relatives in Kallady, a suburb of Batticaloa town. He too was detained at the same military intelligence camp and later at the CSU camp. He was then transferred to Batticaloa and Kalutara prisons.

(16) The Assistant JMO for Colombo Dr.S.Sivasubramaniam who examined Kanakanayakam on December 15, 1999 states in his report to the court that the youth had been beaten up severely with wires and plastic pipes and his head had been covered with a plastic bag containing petrol fumes and chilli powder and that his head had also been repeatedly submerged into water and held until he choked.

(17) On December 28, 1999 Sarathamabal, 29, was gang-raped and murdered in Punguduthivu in Jaffna by Sri Lanka Navy personnel. The CID last week said that there was no evidence to continue the case.

(18) On 12 July 1999 a young woman, Ida Kamaleeta, 21, was raped and murdered in Pallimunai, a suburb of Mannar town by SLA soldiers. Seven soldiers were accused and the case is still pending.

(19) On March 9, 2000 Thirumeni Sunthararajah (24) and Suntharaligam Subendran (23) were shot dead by the Vellaveli STF lying in ambush. when they were going to Mandoor to bid farewell to their relatives before they travelled abroad for employment. The government falsely claimed that both of them were members of the LTTE.

(20) On May 03, 2000 the day the new emergency regulations were gazetted 45-year-old Thangaiyah Sivapooranam from Wattala, Colombo was taken away by three people in civil dress who identified themselves as officers of the Criminal Investigation Department of the police. Following day, his body was found at Kadawatha, together with three other bodies, whose identities remain unknown. There were five gunshot injuries, including one to his forehead, suggesting he may have been summarily executed. Between June 21 - 27, 2000 Yogalingam Vijitha a 27-year-old Tamil woman from Kayts, Jaffna was tortured and raped with a plantain tree flower (hard cone-like, approximately 8-inch long) while in detention at the Negombo.

(21) On June 24, 2000 Velu Arshadevi, a Tamil woman of Indian origin, who was living in a boarding house in Colombo, was raped by three policemen.

(22) On July 19, 2000 the Batticaloa High Court released two Tamil youths who had been tortured by the SLA while in detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The state counsel said that the Attorney General is withdrawing the cases against them and another youth as Senior Superintendent of Police, Bandula Kumara, the chief witness had died.

(23) On May 9, 2000 a 70 year old woman Poomani Saravanai of Neerveli, Jaffna was raped by soldiers of the SLA in front of her 32 year old son. The woman wrote a letter to Joseph Pararajasingham, MP narrating her ordeal at the hands of the thugs in khaki uniform. The MP read out the letter in Parliament and took the opportunity to inform Parliament that about 1, 500 Tamils arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act are still languishing in prisons without trial.

(24) On June 24, 2000 (Saturday), two men from Kalmadhu refugee camp in Valaichenai, who were on their way to go fishing in Punaanai lagoon early morning, were killed when Sri Lanka Army soldiers opened fire, said survivors of the incident. Witnesses said an SLA ambush unit hiding behind bushes fired at them, killing their two colleagues, Sinnathamby Selvarajah, 28 and Kanthavanam Mangalan, 30.

(25) On 13th July, 2000 a student named Somasunderam Sanjeevan schooling at Jaffna Hindu College was shot dead by the armed forces. Sanjeevan was returning home after playing football at the college grounds. The armed forces claimed that the deceased was a suspected Tiger and he was collecting funds for the LTTE. The parents have strongly refuted these frivolous charges.

(26) On July 14 (Monday), 2000 Palanithamby Sambasivam, 16, and Thevaraj Gnanaesh, 16, both from Naasevanthivu were returning home from the annual festival of the Maylankarachchai Mariamman temple. They were shot dead by soldiers who were lying in ambush at Kaddumurivu, according to villagers. Kaddumurivu is a hamlet situated between Maylankarachchai and Naasevanthivu.

(27) On July 15, 2000 a female student from Alvai in the Jaffna peninsula was gang raped by two soldiers attached to the Gajabahu regiment. She was later admitted to Manthikai hospital.

(28) October 25, 2000 Sinhalese mob stormed the detention facility at Bindunuwewa close to Bandarawela. In spite of the presence of armed police, the mob killed 27 of the inmates, hacking and clubbing them to death. Some victims were burned to death. The remaining 14 detainees were seriously injured.

(29)On August 14, 2008 more than 61 schoolgirls were killed and 150 wounded when Sri Lankan Kfir jets bombed a children's home compound in Mullaitivu district Monday morning where schoolgirls from Mullaithivu district were attending a two-day residential course on first aid. Officials of the Liberation Tigers’ Peace Secretariat, briefing reporters in Kilinochchi, described the attack as “a horrible act of terror” by the Sri Lankan armed forces. They condemned the “deliberate, cold-blooded and inhumane” targeting of the schoolgirls compound by the daylight air raid. Liberation Tigers called upon the UN’s child agency, UNICEF, and international truce monitors to visit the scene of the carnage.

(30) On January 29, 2008 a claymore-mine attack by the army’s Deep Penetration Unit (DOU) killed at Paalamadu in Mannar killed 20 school students returning from a sports meet and injured 20. [THE END]

 

சேவைக்கென வந்தவர்களே
படுகொலைக்குள்ளானவர்கள்
ஆஸ்பத்திரி படுகொலை நினைவு உரையில் தெரிவிப்பு

நோயாளர்களின் உயிர்களைக் காப்பாற்ற வேண்டிய வைத்தியசாலையிலேயே படுகொலை கள் இடம்பெற்றுள்ளமை அனைத்து மக்களி னாலும் கண்டிக்கப்பட வேண்டியது ஆகும்.

மேற்கண்டவாறு யாழ்ப்பாணம் போதனா வைத்தியசாலைப் பணிப்பாளர் எஸ்.சதுர்முகம் குறிப்பிட்டார்.

இந்திய இராணுவத்தால் படுகொலைசெய்யப் பட்ட யாழ். போதனா வைத்தியசாலை ஊழியர்கள் 21 பேரினதும் 17ஆம் ஆண்டு நினைவு நாள் அஞ்சலி நிகழ்வு யாழ். போதனா வைத் தியசாலை ஊழியர் க.பீரீஸ் தலைமையில் வைத்தியசாலை வளாகத்தினுள் இடம்பெற்றது.

தொடர்ந்து உரையாற்றிய போதனா வைத் தியசாலைப் பணிப்பாளர் எஸ்.சதுர்முகம்:-

நோயாளர்களின் உயிர்களைப் பாதுகாக்க கடமையுணர்வுடன் வந்திருந்த வைத்திய கலாநிதிகள், தாதிகள், ஊழியர்கள் எனப் பலரும் மிகவும் அருவருக்கத்தக்க வகையில் இந்திய இராணுவத்தால் சுடப்பட்டு மரணமடைந் துள்ளார்கள்.

சேவை செய்பவர்களுக்கு இந்திய இராணு வத்தால் வழங்கப்பட்ட பரிசே இப்படுகொலை கள் ஆகும். எதிர்காலத்தில் இத்தகையதொரு நிகழ்வுகள் யாராலும் எங்கும் இடம்பெறக் கூடாது எனவும் குறிப்பிட்டார்.

யாழ்ப்பாணம் நல்லூர் கோட்ட அரசியல் துறைப் பொறுப்பாளர் செழியன் உரையாற் றும்போது:-
அன்றைய நெருக்கடியான காலகட்டத்தில் மக்களுக்குச் சேவையாற்ற இருந்தவர்களுக்கு இழைக்கப்பட்ட பெரும் துரோகமே இப்படுகொலைகள் ஆகும். இதேபோன்று நோயில் இருந்தும் தமது உயிர்களைப் பாதுகாத்துக்கொள்ள வேண்டும். உயிருக்குப் பாதுகாப்பான இடமென இருந்த நோயாளர்களும் சுட்டுப் படுகொலை செய் யப்பட்டுள்ளனர். இந்த நடவடிக்கைகள் இந்திய இராணுவத்தின் கொலை வெறியை எடுத்துக் காட்டுகிறது.

எம்மைப் பொறுத்த வரையில் எங்களில் யாராவது இறக்கும்போது ஏற்படும் கலக்கத் திலும் பார்க்க, கூடிய கவலையை பொதுமக் கள் கொல்லப்படும்போது எமது தலைவர் அடை கின்றார். நாங்களும் அடைகின்றோம். இராணு வங்களின் இத்தகைய மிலேச்சத்தனமான படு கொலைகள்தானள் எம்மைச் சிந்திக்கவும் செயற் படவும் தூண்டுகின்றன  என்றார்.

வைத்தியசாலை, இங்கு இருப்பவர்கள் வைத்தியர்கள் மற்றும் ஊழியர்களுடன் நோயா ளர்களுமே.
தாதிய உத்தியோகத்தர் திருமதி பு.கணபதி உரையாற்றும்போது:-

வைத்தியசாலையில் இடம்பெற்ற படுகொலை களை நான் உயிருடன் இருக்கும்வரை மறக்க முடியாது. இந்திய இரா ணுவம் பெரியதொரு படு கொலையை இல்லங் களினுள் நடத்தியிருந் தது. கடமை நிமித்தம் இருந்த எங்களை மிலேச் சத்தனமாக சுட்டுக்கொன்றார்கள் என்று கூறி னார்.

மற்றும் வைத்தியசாலை நிர்வாக உத்தி யோகத்தர் க.பத்நாதன், மில்க்வைற் தொழில் அதிபர் இ.தவகோபால் உட்பட மற்றும் பலர் உரையாற்றினார்கள்.

 


கொக்குவில், பிரம்படிப் பகுதியில்
இந்தியப் படையினரால் படுகொலையானோரின்

17ஆவது ஆண்டு நினைவுதினம் அனுஷ்டிப்பு
 

கொக்குவில், பிரம்படிப் பகுதியில் 1987 ஆம் ஆண்டு ஒக்ரோபர் மாதம் 12 ஆம், 13 ஆம் திகதிகளில் இந்திய இராணு வத்தினரால் கோரமான முறையில் படு கொலைசெய்யப்பட்ட அப்பாவிப் பொதுமக் களின் 17 ஆம் ஆண்டு நினைவு தினம் நேற்றுக் காலை 9 மணியளவில் பிரம்படி யிலுள்ள ஞாபகார்த்த நினைவுத் தூபியில் இடம்பெற்றது.

சர்வதே தமிழீழ மாணவர் பேரவைத் தலைவர் ப.பகீதரன் தலைமையில் நடை பெற்ற இந்த நினைவுதின நிகழ்வில் பொதுச்சுடரினை யாழ்.மாவட்ட மகளிர் அரசியல் துறைப் பொறுப்பாளர் கலை விழியும் யாழ்.நல்லூர்; கோட்ட அரசியல் துறைப் பொறுப்பாளர் செழியனும் மற்றும் மாணவ பிரதிநிதிகள், பொது அமைப்பு களின் பிரதிநிதிகள் ஆகியோரும் ஏற்றி னார்கள்.
நினைவுத் தூபிக்கான ஈகச்சுடரினை படுகொலை செய்யப்பட்ட அப்பாவிப் பொது மக்களின் உறவினர்கள் மற்றும் கிராம அலுவலர்களான என்.நவரட்ணராஜா, வ.சந் திரசேகரம் ஆகியோர் ஏற்றி வைத்தனர்.
தொடர்ந்து தூபிக்கான மலர் மாலை களை யாழ்.மாவட்ட அரசியல்துறை துணைப் பொறுப்பாளர் செம்மணனும், நல்லூர் கோட்ட மகளிர் அரசியல்துறைப் பொறுப்பாளர் பூமகளும், யாழ்.பல்கலைக் கழக மாணவர் ஒன்றியத்தலைவர் ம.செல் வக்குமாரும் அணிவித்தனர்.
தொடர்ந்து நிகழ்வில் கலந்துகொண்ட பொதுமக்கள், மாணவர்கள், பொது அமைப் புகளின் பிரதிநிதிகள் ஆகியோர் மலரஞ் சலி செலுத்தினர்.
யாழ்.மாவட்ட அரசியல்துறை துணைப் பொறுப்பாளர் செம்மணன், கொக்குவில் இராமகிருஷ்ண மகாவித்தியாலய அதிபர் சிவபாதசேகரம், நாடாளுமன்ற உறுப்பினர் களான எஸ்.கஜேந்திரன், திருமதி பத்மினி சிதம்பரநாதன் ஆகியோர் நினைவுரையாற் றினார்கள்.
இந்த நிகழ்வில் பொதுமக்கள் மற் றும் பொது அமைப்புகளின் பிரதிநிதிகள், பாடசாலை மாணவர்கள் என நூற்றுக் கணக்கானோர் கலந்துகொண்டனர்.

 


புதுக்காட்டுச்சந்தியில் படுகொலையான
எட்டு பொதுமக்களின் நினைவுதினம்
நேற்று முன்தினம் அனுஷ்டிப்பு

கிளிநொச்சி இயக்கச்சி புதுக்காட்டு சந்திப் பகுதியில் இந்தியப் படையினரால் படுகொலை செய்யப்பட்ட 8 பொதுமக்களின் நினைவு நிகழ்வு கள் நேற்றுமுன்தினம் செவ்வாய்க்கிழமை நடைபெற்றன.

1987 ஆம் ஆண்டு இந்திய அமைதிப் படை யினரால் 8 பொதுமக்கள் படுகொலை செய்யப் பட்டதன் 17 ஆம் ஆண்டு நினைவு நிகழ்வு படு கொலை நடத்தி புதுக்காட்டு சந்தியில் நடை பெற்றது.
இயக்கச்சிப் பிரதேச அரசியல் துறைப் பொறுப்பாளர் ரூபன் நிகழ்வுகளுக்குத் தலைமை வகித்தார்.
பொதுச் சுடரினை மாவீரர் செம்மணனின் தந்தை ஏற்றினார் தமிழீழத் தேசியக் கொடி யினை பளைக் கோட்ட அரசியல்துறைப் பொறுப் பாளர் வின்சன் ஏற்றிவைத்தார். படுகொலை செய்யப்பட்ட பொதுமக்களின் திருவுருவப்படத் துக்கு அவர்களது பெற்றோர்கள், சகோதரர் கள் ஈகச்சுடர் ஏற்றி மலர்மாலை அணிவித்த னர்.
தொடர்ந்து நினைவுரைகள் மற்றும் கலை நிகழ்வுகள் என்பன இடம்பெற்றன.
 

Batticaloa shuts down for Black September massacres

[TamilNet, September 05, 2004 09:48 GMT]
A general shut down (Hartal) was observed in Batticaloa Sunday to mark the massacre of hundreds of civilians, including pregnant women, infants and children, by Sri Lanka army and paramilitaries working with it on 5 September, 1990. Roads were mostly deserted and shops closed in response to a call by leading civil society groups and MPs of the Tamil National Alliance to observe 5 September as a Black Day.

On 5 September Sri Lanka army units assisted by the dreaded paramilitary leader 'PLOTE Mohan' arrested 158 Tamil civilians who sought shelter in the temporary refugee camp inside the premises of the Eastern University during military operations in the area.

All of of them were tortured and killed, according to a one man commission that investigated the massacre three years later. Although the commission named several perpetrators of the massacre, including PLOTE Mohan and his handler Capt. Richard Dias, the Sri Lankan government took no action to investigate or bring them to book.

Four days later on 9 September 184 Tamils from Sathurukondan and its surroundings, on the northern outskirts of Batticaloa town, were arrested and hacked to death in the local SLA camp. Again Colombo took no action despite damning evidence by a youth who escaped the mass murder with machete wounds.

Human rights activists and Tamil civil society leaders say more than six thousand Tamils were murdered by Sri Lanka army and its paramilitaries between August and December 1990 in the Batticaloa-Amparai districts.

மண்டைதீவுப் படுகொலை,
நினைவுத்தூபி திறப்பு

மண்டைதீவைக் கைப்பற்றும் நோக்குடன் 1990 ஆம் ஆண்டு ஓகஸ்ட் மாதம் 22 ஆம் திகதி அன்று ஊர்காவற்றுறை ஊருண்டிப் பகுதியில் தரையிறக்கப்பட்ட படையினரும் தமிழ்க் கட்சிக் குழுவொன்றும் இணைந்து நடத்திய அராஜக நடவடிக்கையில் படுகொலைசெய்யப்பட்ட 320
இற்கும் மேற்பட்ட பொதுமக்களின் நினைவாக சர வணையில் நேற்று நினைவுத்தூபி ஒன்று திறந்து.

தீவுப்பகுதிகளில் மேற்கொள்ளப்பட்ட சுற்றி வளைப்பில் கைதுசெய்யப்பட்ட பொதுமக்கள் அல்லைப்பிட்டி, மண்கும்பான் பிரதேசத்துக்குக் கொண்டுசெல்லப்பட்டு அங்குவைத்து சித்திர வதைகளின் பின்னர் கொலைசெய்யப்பட்டனர். கொலைசெய்யப்பட்டவர்களில் 7பேர் சரவணைப் பகுதியைச் சேர்ந்தவர்கள்.

சரவணை நாகேஸ்வரி வித்தியாலய அதிபர் எஸ்.சத்தியசீலன் தலைமையில் இடம்பெற்ற இந்நிகழ்வில் பொதுச்சுடரினை யாழ். மாவட்ட அரசியற்றுறையின் துணைப்பொறுப்பாளர் செம் மணன் ஏற்றிவைத்தார். தேசியக்கொடியினை தீவகக் கோட்ட சிறப்புப் பொறுப்பாளர் கண்ணன் ஏற்றினார்.

நினைவுரைகளை தீவகம் வடக்கு ஊர்கா வற்றுறை உதவி அரச அதிபர் ஜே.எக்ஸ்.செல்வ நாயகம், பல்கலைக்கழக விரிவுரையாளர் இளம் பிறையன் மற்றும் சர்வதேச தமிழீழ மாணவர் பேரவைத் தலைவர் ப.பகீரதன் ஆகியோர் ஆற் றினர். சிறப்புரையினை செம்மணன் நிகழ்த்தினார்.
நினைவுத்தூபியை பல்கலைக்கழக விரிவு ரையாளர் இளம்பிறையன் திறந்துவைத்தார்.
நினைவுத்தூபிப் பெயர்ப் பலகையை சரவ ணைப் பிரதேச கிராம சேவையாளர் அம்பிகை பாகன் திரைநீக்கம் செய்துவைத்தார். நினைவு நிகழ்வில் கலந்துகொண்ட அனைவரும் மலரஞ் சலி செலுத்தினர்.

இப்படுகொலைச் சம்பவங்கள் 1990ஆம் ஆண்டு ஓகஸ்ட் மாதம் 22ஆம் திகதி முதல் 24ஆம் திகதி வரையான காலப்பகுதிக்குள் இடம்பெற் றிருந்தனர்.

Tamils in Ampara mourn victims of 1990 massacre
[TamilNet, August 12, 2003 14:47 GMT]

A general shutdown (hartal) was observed by Tamil communities in Ampara on Tuesday to mark the 13th anniversary of the massacre of hundreds of Tamils by the Sri Lankn Special Task Forces, Muslim youths and homeguards in Veeramunai, 38 km southwest of Batticaloa town, in 1990, sources in Ampara said.

Shops were shut down and transport services to Pottuvil and Akkaraipattu came to a standstill. Transport service to Thirukovil was completely paralyzed. The entire Tamil area was deserted and normalcy of life was disrupted, sources said, adding that Government offices did not function and schools did not open.

Flags were seen all over the Tamil areas and more police personnel and commandos of the Special Task Force were deployed at strategic junctions, sources in Ampara said.

Veeramunai is an ancient Tamil village close to Sammanthurai and is surrounded by several Muslim villages.

Following the start of war between the Sri Lanka Army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on June 11,1990, the village saw three massacres carried by Muslim youths and homeguards, the Sri Lankan government’s Army and the Special Task Force, Human Rights Activists in the village said.

The STF is particularly notorious for encouraging and carrying out several massacres of Tamil villagers during the war and has been implicated in several human rights complaints, the activists said.

On June 20 and 29 in 1990, homeguards and Sri Lanka Army personnel rounded up hundreds of Tamil males regardless of their age, took them to the Security forces camp in Konduvedduvan and later into the jungles and killed them. The forces later burnt down the homes and other property of the dead, sources from the village said.

Early morning on August 12, 1990, STF personnel, Muslim youths from some extremist ('Jihad') groups and homeguards surrounded the villagers of Veeramunai. With the previous two massacres still fresh in their minds, the villagers said, they feared for their lives and sought refuge in the Sinthayathirai Pillaiyar temple, in the belief that the Hindu temple offered them a measure of security from the attackers. But the STF personnel, homeguards and Muslim youths rained down gunfire at the temple and gunned down the people indiscriminately, killing 56 of them instantly, including children, women and elders, the sources said.

Following this third massacre in the village, Tamil villagers could no longer live there. The villagers sought refuge in a refugee camp in Karaitheevu. Some of the villagers returned to the village in 1993 and continue to live there, but some have never returned and are still living in refugee camps, the sources said.


 

Defying C.I dogma, massacre village rises from ashes

[TamilNet, May 27, 2003 13:30 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army massacred seventeen villagers, including six children, and burnt and razed to the ground Thoni Thaattamadu, an impoverished Tamil hamlet on the east coast’s remote interior 16 years ago on May 27, 1987. The massacre was an integral part of a counter insurgency (C.I) campaign by Sri Lankan armed forces. The village remained a no go zone since then, until the Liberation Tigers signed a ceasefire agreement with Colombo in February last year.

Former residents who dared to venture into the area in search of lost cattle were shot dead or maimed by SLA patrols, or simply disappeared. Yet the people of Thoni Thaattamadu are today engaged in a determined struggle, unaided and unnoticed, to rebuild their village and farm their lands which for many years had lain submerged in the inexorable tide of the dry zone forest.

A dilapidated shelter built by a returnee on the floor of a house that was demolished by the SLA in 1987
Thoni Thaattamadu is about sixty four kilometres north of Batticaloa town, in the interior jungles of the Vaakarai region. The hamlet’s name in Tamil means ‘the trough in which the canoe was buried’.

Thoni Thaatamadu was among hundreds of Tamil villages that fell victim to British-US inculcated counter insurgency doctrine followed by the Sri Lankan armed forces in combating the Liberation Tigers on the east coast’s hinterlands from 1984 to 2000.

The SLA and the Special Task Force, the elite counter insurgency wing of the Sri Lankan armed forces, destroyed Tamil villages in many remote parts of the northeast, in areas which were not within the perimeters of Sri Lankan armed forces camps. Villagers were driven out overnight, with little time to carry even their basic belongings.

The aim of this standard counter insurgency procedure as defined in British and US field manuals was to deny supplies, transit points, safe houses, water etc., by forcibly moving out whole populations to areas which were under the firm control and supervision of the state’s armed forces.

Mr. Shanmugam

Following British/US C.I doctrine to the letter, the Sri Lankan armed forces burnt and razed Tamil villages in the interior to the ground, drove out the populations to ‘controlled areas’, destroyed crops, breached reservoirs to deny water, slaughtered cattle and took measures to prevent the return of the people.

However, the main component of the C.I doctrine was to raise the threshold of terror in the ‘target population’ to a level which, in theory, would impel it to shun the guerrillas and avoid contact for fear of torture and death. Terror was also intended to erase the political aspirations of the ‘target population’, break up its collective political will and to steeply depress the people’s expectations to bare survival- the mere desire to stay alive. The aim of spreading terror, in accordance with standard C.I doctrine, was achieved through massacres.

In late 1993, standing virtually on the ashes of the Tamil villages which were burnt down, SLA brass and its foreign advisors claimed that their counter insurgency doctrine was a success and that the east had become safe enough to hold local government elections. They said that denied of support populations, supplies, water and viable lines of communication, LTTE groups in the region had become too weak to even disrupt elections to local government bodies there held in March 1994.

Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was Prime Minister then too, read out portions from a book by the father of modern British counter insurgency doctrine, Gen. Frank Kitson, while explaining the ‘successes’ the Sri Lankan armed forces had scored in ‘pacifying’ the east in an address to Sri Lanka’s Parliament at the time.

Despite these claims, the C.I doctrine, however, was not working on the ground because the Liberation Tigers had fast developed counter measures to overcome the operational difficulties they had to face in the east due to Colombo’s anti-guerrilla campaign.

Although memories of the terror unleashed under the SLA’s C.I operations is still etched vividly in the memories of the people who survived the massacres it has deterred few from going back to their destroyed villages and rebuilding their lives. Their collective will seems scarcely broken by the memories of the gruesome murders of their kith and kin and the long years of destitution.

“We heard firing in the early hours of the morning in the front part the village. Fearing the worst, we ran and hid in the jungle and shrub as it was still dark. We heard the screams of children, women and men. Then we saw soldiers setting fire to the houses”, said Mr. Muththan Shanmugam, 68, the head of the Thoni Thaattamadu Rural Development Society (RDS).

“We came out from hiding later in the morning after making sure the soldiers had left. We found most of the bodies of people and children shot by the army charred in the burnt huts. Some bodies were beyond recognition. They had burnt the harvested paddy and the crops in the village”.

“I was the President of the RDS at that time too. So I got the survivors to gather whatever little belongings of theirs that had escaped the fire and we walked through the jungles to Paalchenai and Kathiraveli, fearing another attack”, he said.

The six children who were killed by the SLA soldiers were 1-2 years old.

Three years after the massacre, driven by destitution, some families which survived the murder attempted to reclaim their homes and lands in the village. But they couldn’t remain long as they had to constantly hide from SLA patrols which burnt their crops and slaughtered their cattle.

In 1993, the SLA built a camp in the village to prevent residents from coming back and to intensify operations against the Liberation Tigers in the interior. The military also set up a sentry in the village’s irrigation reservoir (tank), breaching its bunds to deny water supply to LTTE guerrillas in the area.

“The soldiers in that camp slaughtered for their food more than 75 cattle we left behind”, says Mr. Velan Tharmalingam, 40.

Mr. Velan Tharmalingam standing by the Thoni Thaattamadu reservoir’s sluice gate

“But the biggest obstacle we face today is that there is not enough water to cultivate our fields because the tank is breached and channels are in utter disrepair. Before the massacre we used to cultivate more than 250 acres of paddy with water from the reservoir. Today it is so damaged that it can hold water that is only enough to cultivate about 35 acres”, he laments, showing the condition of the rusted sluice gate of the Thoni Thattamadu reservoir.

The few resettling families here have to walk or cycle more than eight kilometres to Vaakarai to obtain provisions and medicine. “There is much to be done to rebuild our village. Few know of our plight and fewer are ready to help us. But this is our home. We have to live here”, Mr. Tharmalingam told Tamilnet.

 

1987 killings still haunt Vakarai residents

[TamilNet, May 23, 2003 02:21 GMT]
Nearly sixteen years ago residents of Thonithandamadu village in Vakarai region in Batticaloa district were witness to gruesome killings when soldiers of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shot, hacked to death and burnt the bodies of ten Tamil civilians. The memory still haunts the relatives of the victims and the residents of the impoverished village.

On the night of 27 May 1987 SLA soldiers came to Thonithandamadu from Kathiraveli, Vakarai, Maavadi Odai and Vammivedduvan terrorized the village residents before carrying out the massacre. The names of those who perished on that dark day are:

Residents recall the climate of impunity enjoyed by the SLA soldiers and point out that none of the perpetrators of the massacre was brought to jusice.

 


Batticaloa shuts down for massacred children
[TamilNet, May 07, 2001 02:43 GMT]

Shops and businesses were closed and few people were on the roads Monday in the Batticaloa district to observe the Buddhist festival if Vesak as a day of mourning for the 10 children from an orphanage who were killed by Sri Lanka army soldiers on 17 May last year. The main road from Kalmunai to Batticaloa was blocked at Ondaachchi Madam, Kaluthavalai and Thalangkudah by villagers. Fourteen persons, including ten children who came to the Batticaloa town from an orphanage in Aayiththiyamalai, were shot dead during the Vesak festival by SLA troops last year.

The SLA sought an apology for the massacre from the people of Batticaloa in January this year, blaming a drunken commanding officer for ordering troops to open fire on civilians.

The students and teachers of the Eastern University in Batticaloa called on the people of Batticaloa to observe the Vesak festival as a day of mourning during a protest on 27 April.

All the main roads in Batticaloa were deserted Monday morning, despite a warning by the local SLA brigade commander that no one should take part in the Hartal (general shut down).


Vesak Massacre remembered in Batticaloa
[TamilNet, May 17, 2003 18:19 GMT]
In Aayiththiyamalai, a village in the district’s interior, 16 kilometres west of the eastern town, a special service was held Saturday at the local church for ten orphans who were massacred by Sri Lanka army soldiers and Policemen during the Vesak festival in Batticaloa town three years ago on 17 May. Sri Lankan armed forces, however, celebrated Vesak, the annual Buddhist light festival as usual in Batticaloa this week.

Children from the Catholic Church orphanage in Aayiththiyamalai who were on a visit to Batticaloa on 17 May, 2000 to see special Vesak lanterns and other festival decorations by the Sri Lankan armed forces in the eastern town were shot dead by special forces soldiers from the SLA’s 23-3 Brigade HeadquarteArs.

Eleven civilians were also shot dead by the SF soldiers in the ‘Vesak Massacre’.

A Sri Lanka army soldier helping build a giant lantern in Batticaloa town Saturday

Fr. Chandra Fernando, the priest who accompanied the children from the orphanage as a special guardian and guide was seriously wounded in the shooting. The priest, though in a critical condition, was treated in secrecy to avoid blackmail and harassment by the SLA.

“Investigations by Colombo into this gruesome massacre were half hearted from the beginning”, said Mr.Joseph Pararajasingham,Tamil National Alliance MP.

The Batticaloa Vesak Massacre was not fully investigated by the Sri Lanka Police. No perpetrator of the gruesome massacre was ever bought before justice.



Buddhist shrine in Batticaloa where Sri Lankan armed forces hold the festival
 

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Udumbankulam survives mass murder, forced eviction
[TamilNet, February 19, 2003 21:30 GMT]
In Udumbankulam, a minor Tamil hamlet in the little known interior of Sri Lanka’s southeastern coast, the fields are densely green where 17 years ago on February 19, 1986 the Sri Lankan military hacked and beat to death 128 farmers on the village’s threshing floor. The area is being gradually retrieved from the clutches of the jungle. A handful of intrepid former residents who returned to the village five months ago are eagerly looking forward to a bumper crop of rice. But Feb 19 remains an indelibly bitter day for them.

As often is the case, the Sri Lankan government did nothing to investigate the mass murder of Udumbankulam.

“I escaped the massacre because I was out on business that day. Everyone was scared. We were able to get here only the next day. The threshing floor was full of burnt and half burnt bodies. It was an unbearable sight. A boy who escaped and hid in the jungle told us that some of the victims were alive when the soldiers set them on fire. Exactly five months later the military came here again and shot dead two men from the village, on 19 July 86”, said Nakamany Kandasamy, 48, the local headman.

Three years after the gruesome massacre, those villagers who dared to remain in Udumbankulam were driven out en masse by the elite counter insurgency arm of the Sri Lankan military the Special Task Force (STF).

“STF commandos burnt our house and shop in 1990. They destroyed the village school and co-operative society building too. The STF set fire to our harvested paddy and destroyed 25 thousand manioc plants in our farm which we had planted for the season. My husband and I barely escaped death. We hid in the jungles for many days. We have come back here after 12 years. But starting life all over again is very hard”, says Kumarakulasingham Thangeswary, 45.

“But worst of all is that the STF blew up the bunds of water reservoirs here. The reservoirs have remained breached for almost a decade. The Tamil Eelam Economic Development Organisation (TEEDOR) has helped repair the bund of the Udumbankulam reservoir. Other the breached bunds of the other minor tanks (reservoirs) have also been repaired in recent months”, said the President of the Rural Development Society for the area, Mr. Murugesu Varatharajan, 33.

He said families are reluctant to resettle on a permanent basis because even the rudimentary infrastructure needed to sustain human habitation has been systematically and ruthlessly destroyed in the STF’s counter insurgency operations in the region.

“To many of our people who go about in luxury vehicles, discussing the reconstruction of our homeland with foreigners, we are just an inconspicuous dot on the map. Pregnant women have to walk more than eight kilometres from here to get a bus to Thirukkovil”, he adds bitterly.

“We had to break granite stones for a living. We could not cultivate the lands here and my family is still sunk in poverty. Three meals a day is a luxury for my family”, says Krishnan Sivajothy, 38, as she beats with a stick a sheaf of paddy she and her friends had been allowed to collect from the floor of a harvested field in Thangavelauthapuram, a village near Udumbankulam.

“A hard day’s work gets us enough grains of rice to give the children a square meal”, she said.

Sivajothy and her colleagues are from the village of Thandiady, about 94 kilometers south of Batticaloa, on the main road along the island’s southeastern coast.

The STF held the village for more than decade, like an open prison, human rights activists in Batticaloa say.

Indiscriminate arrest, detention, torture and disappearance were rampant here. No journalist has been to the area since the STF took control more than 18 years ago.

Thousands of families which were driven out almost overnight as part of the STF’s counter insurgency strategy designed according to western manuals on the subject, lived as refugees for more than 12 years in the villages of Thirukkovil and Thambiluvil, 76 kilometers south of Batticaloa. Many were driven to destitution and despair as the STF continued to deny access to their fertile lands and cattle herds.

Those who dared to go back were shot dead by STF patrols in ambush.

However, the STF’s decade long counter insurgency measures, successfully tested and honed over the years in other parts of the world, neither curbed the military activities of the Liberation Tigers nor succeeded in scaring the population away from the Tigers.

Instead, the scorched earth policy which successive government’s tacitly promoted in the region evolved into a cover to the STF for a perpetuating a comfortable way of corrupt life, which the terrorized population was forced to pay dearly for.

“We had to lose a few people. But public protests here since the signing of the ceasefire have shown the STF that our people cannot be treated like slaves for ever”, says Vivekanandan, a social activist and journalist in Thirukkovil.

 

Saththurukkondaan massacre remembered

[TamilNet, September 09, 2002 16:59 GMT]

The twelfth annual remembrance of the Saththurukkondaan massacre was observed Monday at Panichchaiyadi junction near Batticaloa town Monday. Sri Lanka army soldiers and Muslim home guards murdered 186 Tamils, mostly women and children, in the villages of Saththurukkondaan, Panichchaiyadi, Kokkuvil and Pillaiyaradi on the northern outskirts of Batticaloa town on 9 September 1990. A memorial for the victims was unveiled near the scene of the massacre.

More than a hundred auto rickshaws drove in a procession from the Gandhi Square in Batticaloa town to the Panichchaiyadi Junction. A sacrificial flame for the victims was lit by local community leaders, relatives of the massacre victims and officials of the Liberation Tigers in Batticaloa.  

“The Sri Lankan state had granted its army the right to take the lives of our people at that time. No able to question this then. We were living in fear. But things have changed now because of the Liberation Tigers. They sacrificed their lives to get this peace for us,” Rev. Deva, the local parish priest of the Catholic Church, speaking at the remembrance function.

“The Sri Lanka army massacred hundreds of innocent people to scare the public away from us. But they could not break our people’s determination through terror. Our people refused to give up their rights and to fall at the feet of the outsider,” said Mr. Senathy, the head of the LTTE’s political division in Batticaloa town, addressing the function Monday.

Two commissions of inquiry appointed by the UNP and PA governments inquired into the massacre and recorded evidence from the sole survivor and relatives of the victims. However, none of the perpetrators in the SLA were brought to book.

 

Black September remembrance in Batticaloa university

[TamilNet, September 05, 2002 21:53 GMT]

Batticaloa marked the beginning of Black September Thursday with a largely attended function at the Eastern University in Vantharumoolai on the 12th anniversary of the massacre of 174 refugees who had sought asylum on the campus during Sri Lanka army operations in the area in 1990.

Two human rights commissions appointed by the UNP and the PA respectively said categorically that the Sri Lanka army was responsible for the massacre. Justice Souza who headed the first commission named a Sri Lanka army officer and a member of a paramilitary group as the main culprits in the university massacre. The retired justice identified the SLA officer as Capt. Richard Dias, Sinhalese who operated under the Muslim alias ‘Munas’.

But none of the perpetrators named by the commissions were brought to book. University students and relatives of the massacre victims burnt a replica of military boot.

A memorial lamp for the victims was lit by the mother of a refugee youth who was killed by the army in the massacre.

The Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University Dr. M. S.Mookaiah, the head of the university’s Trincomalee campus, Dr. K. Jeyasingham, the university’s former registrar V. Sivalingam and other addressed the gathering.

The speakers emphasised the fact that successive governments in Colombo had not taken any interest in bringing the culprits in the Sri Lanka army and paramilitary groups to justice. They also blamed local politicians for taking no interest in bringing the massacres to the world’s attention.

Dr. Jeyasingham and Mr. Sivalingam who were present in the University when the refugees were taken away to be killed, recounted their experience of the terror. Human rights activists in the east estimate that the Sri Lankan armed forces massacred more than six thousand Tamil civilians in the Batticaloa and Amparai districts between July and December 1990 when it moved into the east to recapture the region from the Liberation Tigers. The main mass massacres of Tamil civilians in the two districts took place in the month of September.

 

Sri Lankan military wants to improve human rights standards
Tue May 14, 2:22 PM ET

By KRISHAN FRANCIS, Associated Press Writer

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Sri Lanka's top army general said Tuesday the army is seeking to improve its human rights record, which has been tainted by allegations of abuses during the government's 18-year war with the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.

The military of this island nation off India's southern coast has been accused by rights groups of human rights violations including murder, rape and the torture of civilians in custody.

London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International has said 540 people disappeared after the army wrested control of the Jaffna peninsula away from the Tamil Tigers in 1995. Jaffna is 300 kilometers (185 miles) north of capital Colombo.

"The country has suffered because some of us have made mistakes," Army Commander Lt. Gen. Lionel Balagalle told 37 officers who completed a human rights awareness course Tuesday.

The government and the rebels signed a Norway-brokered cease-fire on Feb. 22, and direct peace talks are expected to start in Thailand next month.

The training in human rights was first started in 1997 by the army's human rights directorate, following complaints of violations by soldiers, said its director Brig. P. Pannipitiya.

More than 100 officers have since been trained in six courses conducted by the International Committee of the Red Cross. The directorate targets training at least 500 to expand the knowledge of human rights among the estimated 100,000-strong army.

Since 1983, Sri Lankan armed forces have been fighting one of the modern world's longest civil wars against the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam, who are trying to carve out a separate state for the island's minority Tamils. More than 64,500 people have been killed during the conflict and 1.6 million displaced, mostly from Jaffna.

Balagalle said the allegations made against the army after it took control of Jaffna was one reason why the human rights education program for soldiers was necessary.

He did not give further comment on those allegations.

The military has been accused of human rights violations mainly against Tamils, who can be detained without charge on suspicion of involvement with the rebels.

Many relatives of the disappeared have claimed that their family members have been missing since the army arrested them as rebel suspects. A government investigation into these disappearances has reached no conclusion.

"Soldiers found guilty of human rights crimes will be punished severely," Balagalle said, without giving further detail.

There have only been a few cases during the 18-year war of soldiers or police being tried on charges of murder, rape or torture of civilians.

 

 Mylanthanai massacre case before Sinhala Jury

[TamilNet, January 16, 2002 18:40 GMT]

The Colombo High Court Wednesday ordered that the Mylanthanai massacre case should be heard before Sinhala speaking Jury. In this case twenty one army personnel have been indicted with the murder of 35 Tamil villagers of Mylanthanai in Batticaloa district on 9th August 1992.

When this case was taken up for inquiry Wednesday before the Colombo High Court Mr. S.Sriskandaraja, only eighteen accused were present. The prosecution told court that three accused had died.

The accused have been indicted on 85 counts including murder, attempted murder and unlawful assembly.

The defense made an application that the trial against the accused should be held before Sinhala speaking Jury. The High Court Judge allowed the application.

In this incident 35 Tamil villagers of Mylanthanai in Punanai area in Batticaloa district were massacred by Sri Lanka Army soldiers following the death of Lt Colonel Hector Kobbekadauwa in Jaffna in a land mine attack.

    1. At Tinnevely on 24th July 1983 a day after the 13 soldiers were killed in an ambush at the same village, 60 civilians are said to have been killed in a reprisal killing by the security forces

    2. July 27 the killing of 40 detainees at the Welikada prison,

    3. Immediately after 30th November 1984 killings at the Kent and Dollar farms, soldiers are alleged to have gone berserk and shot everyone in sight

    4. December 2nd 1984 a large number of Tamils civilians were alleged to have been killed at Irretperiyakulam in the Vavunia district,

    5. December 4th 1984, a further number of Tamil civilians were alleged to have been killed at Cheddikulum in the Manner district.

    6. May 10th 1984, 70 civilians were alleged to have been killed at Valvettithurai, the home town of Prabhakaran after a land mine killed a Major. (On May 14th the LTTE desecrated the Bo Maluwa at Anuradhapura and slaughtered over 150 civilians)

    7. On May 15th May as a reprisal for the attack on the Sri Maha Bodhi Anuradhapura killings, Navy personnel are alleged to have killed 34 civilians travelling by boat - Kumuthini from Delft island.

    8. Between 16th and 18th May 1985 A further number of civilians were alleged to have been killed from the villages of Maipattimunai, Thuraineelavenni and Kangikudichchari (village adjoining Tirukovil, where 640 policemen who surrendered to the LTTE on the orders of the then government, were massacred by the LTTE.)

    9. The most known massacre at Kokkadaicholai in 1985 where over 80 civilians were killed by the security forces. The only incident into which a Commission of Inquiry was instituted.

 

 

Death of a Tamil village

With its vast stretches of paddy fields shimmering under the sun, swirling flocks of white herons above them and the clear and peaceful lagoon dominating the view, Kokkadicholai town and its surroundings are a scene from a picture postcard. Yet, the tranquillity of the area belies the horrors that have taken place there.

SITUATED in the Eastern province of Sri Lanka within the district of Batticaloa, its inhabitants are mainly agricultural workers and fisherfolk. The general Kokkadicholai name actually includes the town itself and several adjacent villages.

June 12, 1991 is Kokkadicholai's blackest day. At some point during the morning, a tractor-trailer, part of a convoy ferrying troops to the nearby Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp, tripped a landmine planted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Several soldiers were killed in the explosion while many more lost limbs. 

During the evening and night, the rest of the soldiers from the convoy retaliated against the nearby Tamil populace by embarking on a spree of killings, torture and multiple rapes in the adjacent villages of Mahiladitivu and Muthalaikuda. Seventeen Tamil families who sought protection in a village school were mown down. Among the victims of multiple rapes was a young girl. An elderly teacher offered the soldiers her life savings of jewellery in return for the youngster's safety. The soldiers took the jewels and then raped the girl anyway.

The Sri Lankan soldiers also converged on a rice mill into which 49 civilians had fled. The mill was surrounded then set on fire by the soldiers, burning all of the occupants alive. More than 500 homes in the surrounding villages were also set on fire. An estimated 200 people were later admitted to hospitals with injuries.

Meanwhile thousands of people fled across the Batticaloa lagoon to Thalankudah on the eastern coast. A relief team from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was forcibly prevented from reaching the scene for 48 hours while the soldiers disposed of many of the villagers' bodies.

Goaded into action by the resulting furore, the Sri Lankan government of the time ordered an inquiry, the findings of which blamed an army Captain of leading the atrocity. He was promptly dismissed from the army - and instead given a much higher position within the government machinery.

Others who were accused of being partakers were allegedly "punished," merely by being sent to the northern war front form the east. While the government acknowledged only 67 deaths, the real number is thought to be closer to two hundred. The fact that most bodies were taken by the army, never to be recovered, makes the exact figure an unknown. The number of dead reported by the British Refugee Council was 182.

This was not the first time Kokkadicholai has seen bloodletting on this scale. Another massacre, this time by the elite Special Task Force (STF), a police commando unit, took place in January 1987. During a search and destroy operation allegedly to locate members of the Liberation Tigers - and also having suffered casualties in an LTTE attack shortly before - the STF swooped on a prawn farm in the area run jointly by an American company and local employees.

One hundred and fifty-two Tamil civilians, most poor farmers, were shot for no apparent reason. According to numerous eyewitness accounts the bodies were piled into a tractor-trailer and driven away. They were never recovered. The STF unit commander warned a surviving female eyewitness, "don't tell anybody about this [the killings]. We will burn your home and kill everyone in it". In one incident in a nearby village the same day, five people were made to stand on the ledge of a well and shot, their corpses falling into the well, permanently poisoning the water.

Though famous, be it for all the wrong reasons, Kokkadicholai is by no means a massacre site on its own. A research paper entitled 'The Cost of War', published by the Colombo-based National Peace Council, alone lists over seventy five major incidents of violence between 1982 and 1998 attributed to the Sri Lanka armed forces in which scores of Tamil civilians were murdered. These incidents are spread right across the traditional Tamil homelands, but they are only the tip of the iceberg.

The massacring of civilians by the state's security forces first happened most prominently in the south of the island in the early seventies. The killing of thousands by the Sri Lanka security forces crushed a rebellion in 1971, led by the Marxist party Janatha Vimukthi Peramula (JVP). The victims were almost always young Sinhalese men and women who the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) government suspected of being sympathetic to the Marxists.

In the mid to late eighties, the United National Party (UNP) government under the leadership of late President Ranasinghe Premadasa faced with another uprising by the JVP once again embarked on a murderous campaign against Sinhala youth in the south of the island it suspected of being anti-government.

Scores of bodies washed ashore every week and charred corpses with the infamous 'tyre-necklace' were commonplace as were bodies floating along rivers in Colombo and its surroundings. Estimates say that around 60,000 Sinhala youth were killed in a period of around three years; or over four hundred young men and women each week.

These extra-judicial killings, though commonplace and the perpetrators well known to be government agents, were never investigated properly. An atmosphere of fear and terror subdued most to reserve their negative views of the government, at least in public. The Sinhala government is widely considered to have attained its primary objective, namely the dousing of actions, thoughts and ideas not in accord with that of the state. That the government repressed free thought by using fear, intimidation and murder as the main tools is now a largely forgotten thought.

While the large-scale violence attributed to the Sri Lankan state against the Sinhala people lasted a relatively narrow window of time, violence against Tamil civilians has been ongoing. From the outset of the armed conflict, which escalated in the eighties, thousands of Tamil civilians were killed. Entire villages were wiped out in a series of massacres in Jaffna, Mannar and the east. The 1984 peace talks in Thimpu collapsed when the SLA broke the ceasefire and massacred 200 people in Mannar.

Among the most notorious - though not necessarily the most bloody - incidents were the killings of 75 Tamil civilians in the northern town of Valvettithurai, a massacre of scores of people on the Gurunagar ferry by the navy and the hundred civilians killed in revenge for an attack on the Vavuniya army camp. Losses against Tamil guerrillas inevitably resulted in retaliation against civilians close to the scenes of battle.

Continuing the practice honed against the JVP, the use of terror and mass murder to impress the government's uncompromising sentiment against challenges to its authority, the massacres against the Tamil people began promptly after the talks broke down in June 1990. In his letter on human rights violations by the Sri Lanka armed forces the Batticaloa East MP Joseph Pararajasingam accused the government of killing more than 600 Tamil civilians in the East alone within a single month. In fact in the six months that immediately followed the resumption of the war, an estimated three thousand people died or disappeared in the eastern province.

The impunity with which the Sri Lankan forces could inflict death, torture and rape against the Tamils was perhaps best illustrated when the army casually took into custody 148 Tamil youths from the Eastern University Refugee Camp, Batticaloa, while hundreds of civilians watched. The university authorities recorded the names of all the detained and fingerprints of all complainants of the incidents. None of the 148 was ever seen again.

When a Tamil parliamentarian raised the issues in the Sri Lankan parliament, the deputy minister for defence flatly denied the incident ever happened. The tone changed somewhat during a later answer, in which the reply was a mocking, "the LTTE has taken them".

The people of Kokkadicholai were wiped out twice over by the Sri Lankan security forces. The area, now under the LTTE's control, has become infamous amongst the Tamil community, and the anger and outrage over the atrocities remains unchanged in this part of the world ten years on. It is not surprising that the Liberation Tigers enjoy unstinting support here.

Under the convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, acts of murder committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious groups as such are considered as acts of genocide. In Kokkadicholai and in other locations throughout the north and east, the victims of this and other massacres were targeted because they were just that; a national, ethnical and racial group in their own right; called Tamils.