CONTENTS OF THIS
SECTION
19/09/09 |
துயிலும் இல்லம்,
Jaffna
includes those Eelam Tamils who died in the
war against the Indian Army in 1987-1989 |
The Indo-LTTE War (1987-90) - An Anthology. Part 1 - Sachi Sri Kantha,
24
November 2007 |
The Indian Air Force in Sri Lanka 1987-1990
|
The Indian Army in Sri Lanka 1987-1990
|
India's Vietnam - the IPKF in Sri Lanka |
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Article 8.2 -
"war crimes" means -
(a) Grave breaches of the
Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, namely, any of the following
acts against persons or property protected under the provisions of the
relevant Geneva Convention:
(i)
Wilful killing;
(ii) Torture
or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments;
(iii) Wilfully causing great suffering, or serious
injury to body or health;
(iv) Extensive destruction and appropriation of
property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully
and wantonly; ...
(b) Other serious violations of the laws and customs
applicable in international armed conflict, within the established framework of
international law, namely, any of the following acts:
(i)
Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as
such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in
hostilities;
(ii)
Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, that is,
objects which are not military objectives; ..
(iv)
Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will
cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to
civilian objects or widespread, longterm and severe damage to the
natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the
concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated;
(v) Attacking or bombarding, by whatever means,
towns, villages, dwellings or buildings which are undefended and which
are not military objectives;
(vi) Killing
or wounding a combatant who, having laid down his arms or having no
longer means of defence, has surrendered at discretion; ....
(ix) Intentionally directing attacks against
buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable
purposes, historic monuments, hospitals and places where the sick and
wounded are collected, provided they are not military objectives; ....
(xxi) Committing outrages upon personal dignity, in
particular humiliating and degrading treatment;
(xxii)
Committing rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced
pregnancy, as defined in article 7, paragraph 2 (f), enforced
sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence also constituting a
grave breach of the Geneva Conventions;
(xxiii) Utilizing the presence of a civilian or other
protected person to render certain points, areas or military forces
immune from military operations;
(xxiv) Intentionally directing attacks against
buildings, material, medical units and transport, and personnel using
the distinctive emblems of the Geneva Conventions in conformity with
international law;
(xxv) Intentionally using starvation of civilians as a
method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their
survival, including wilfully impeding relief supplies as provided for
under the Geneva Conventions; ... |
|
INDICTMENT AGAINST RAJIV GANDHI'S INDIA
Rajiv
Gandhi's War Crimes
நெற்றிக்கண் திறப்பினும் குற்றம் குற்றமே...உண்மைகள்
ஒருபோதும் உறங்குவதில்லை, உறங்கவும் கூடா...
Truth never sleeps - and it should not.... [see also
India & the Struggle for Tamil Eelam
]
...at the Invitation of Sri Lanka
"..the Indian Army came here,
massacred
innocent Tamil civilians,
raped our women and
plundered our valuables. The acronym IPKF will always stand for
Indian People Killing Force where we are concerned. We will one day
erect a memorial in the heart of Jaffna town, in the centre of Hospital
Road, in memory of all the innocent civilians – ranging in age from the
very old past 80 to young children massacred by the IPKF and to the
women who were raped."
IPKF - Innocent People Killing Force, Dr. T. Somasekaram
"...as an Indian I feel ashamed that under the
Indo Sri
Lanka agreement, our forces are fighting with Tamils whom they went
to protect...I believe that the Indian Government had betrayed its own
culture and ethics...The guilt, therefore, rests entirely on those who
sent them to do this dastardly business of fighting in Sri Lanka against
our Tamil brothers and sisters..."
India's former Foreign Secretary, A.P.Venkateshwaran, speaking in
London in April 1988
|
ஓ....எங்கள் குரல் கேட்கிறதா ? |
Tamil civilians killed by the IPKF...
Dr A.
Sivapathasuntheram,
Dr M.K.
Ganesharatnam,
Dr
Parimelalahar,
Mrs
Vadivelu,
Mrs Leelawathie,
Mrs
Sivapakiam,
Mrs
Ramanathan,
Mr Shanmugalingam,
Mr
Kanagalingam,
Mr
Krishnarajah,
Mr
Selvarajah, R. Duraiswamy (SLAS) Retd. Secretary, Ministry of Local
Government. M. Duraiwswamy Retd. Staff Officer Bank of Ceylon, Mr. S.
Sivasubramaniam, retired Director of Irrigation, Mrs. Sivasubramaniam,
his retired teacher wife and their only son, Prof. P.
Chandrasekeram, University of Jaffna, Dr R.W. Crossette Thambiah, Dr
Selvaratnam Former DMO Maskeliya, Dr S. Pararajasingham J.M.O, L.F.M.
Samuel Rtd. Teacher (St. Thomas College, Mt. Lavinia & Royal College),
K.J. Sambanthar Retd. DLO & Asst. Land Commissioner, Jaffna, Mrs S.
Sivanandaraja (mother), Mohanraj (son) Technical Officer, Irrigation
.Dept, Mrs Kishnam, Mrs M. Sebastiampillai, Mrs N.R. Thuriappa, Mrs V.
Ruthiralingam, C.S. Aaron, A. Subramanium Attorney at Law, Mr & Mrs
Pancharatnam, Rtd. Teachers, K. Navaratnam Rtd. Divisional Supdt. of
Post Offices, S. Nadarajah, Formerly SLBC, Tamil Service, P. Arooran ,
M. Nadaraja, S. Rasanayagam Rtd. Credit Controller CCC Ltd., Mrs M.
Weerasegaram Pillai, (Mother), Pillai Yasotha Weerasegaram (Daughter),
Mrs S. Thanapalasingham (Mother) Miss N. Thanapalasingham (Daughter) S.
Kulasegerampillai, Retd. Station Master, Mrs M. Arumugam (sister
of Senator S.Nadesan), Mrs R. Gnanamuttu , A. Candappu Rtd. State
Officer, S. Selvaranee, S. Shanmugasuntharam, Electrician, Jaffna
Municipal Council, S. Thambiah, (father of T. Sabaratnam), Mrs.
Thambimuttu, Kannan Iyer, . Mr. V. Subramaniam, 60 yrs Vithanai Lane,
Mrs. Illayaperumal Umaranee,
29 yrs;
Mr. A. Illayaperumal,
70 yrs; Mrs. R. Pushparani, 45 yrs; Mast. R. Javanaraj, 11 yrs;
Mast. A. Sundereswaran, 11 yrs; Mr. S. Ganeshalingam, 35 yrs;
Miss. Ganeshalingam Sashi, 11/2 yrs; Mrs. Airtham Umadevi, 26 yrs;
Mr. A. Ramachandran, 41 yrs; Mr. K. Sivanesarajah, 36 yrs; Mr. P.
Ranjithamumar, 25 yrs; Mr. N. Raveenthiran, 32 yrs; Mr. K.
Mahenthirarajah, 49 yrs; Mr. K. Velummylum, 42 yrs; Mr. R. Nadarajah, 62
yrs ; Mr. V. Arulsothy, 28 yrs ; Mrs. Kandasamy Sivapackiam, 45 yrs,
Palavi; Mr. R. Rasaratnam, 34 yrs, Sivankovilandy,; Mr. K. Thangarasa,
60 yrs, Palavi Colony;; Mr. B. Premraj, 22 yrs, Theeruvil Lane;; Mr. S.
Umasankar, I9 yrs, Kadduvalavu Lane;; Mr. T. Ravichandran, 28 yrs,
Kadduvalavu Lane;; Mr. S. Mylvaganam, 55 yrs, Oorany; Mr. T. Nagadas, 28
yrs, Kadduvalavu Lane;; Mr. B. Mahenthirarasa, 16 yrs, Vembady Lane;;
Mr. R. Navaratnam, 29 yrs, Oodakarai Lane;; Mr. S. Thambithurai, 62 yrs,
Sivaguru Vidyalaya; Mast. Nagalingam Piruntha, 14 yrs, Navalady; Mr.
Arulsothy Ravennthiran, 17 yrs; Mr. Arulpiragasam Swanathas, 18 yrs,
A.G.A. Lane; Mrs. Selvaratnam Sivamany, 35 yrs, Colony; Mrs. P.V.
Krishnavathana, 35 yrs, Udayamanal;; Mr. K. Shanmugavadivel, 36 yts,
Kadduvalavu lane; Mr. Kuddipavun, 30 yrs; Mr. S. Amuthan Markandu, 29
Yrs, Vithanai Lane;; Mrs. Eswaramoorthy Rajaledchumy, 26 yrs; Mast.
Aathy Arunasalam paramsothy, 17 yrs; Mrs. Nadarajah Nallamuthu, 70 yrs,
Vevil Lane;; Mr. P. Shamugalingam, 43 yrs; Mr. Kumaravel
Selvanathavel, 19 yrs; Mr. Pooniah Kalidas , 25 yrs; Mr. N. Panugopal,
23 yrs; Mr. Wijeratnam Muraleetharan, 20 yrs, Colony; Mr. Sothilingam
Rameshkumar, I8 yrs; Mr. Ponnuthurai Rasenthiram, 23 yrs, Aathikovilady;
Mr. Velummylum Selvachandran, 26 yrs, Kotiyal; Mr. K. Rajasekaran, 20
yrs; Mr. S. Durairaja, 59 yrs; Mr. Sakthivel, 23 yrs; Mr. T.
Sivakumar, 19 yrs; Mr. T. Jeyamohan, 16 yrs; Mr. A. Parasar, 18 yrs; Mr.
T. Sambasivam, I8 yrs; Mr. S. Perinbam, 18, yrs,; Mr. C. Yogarajah, 18
yrs; Mr. P. Sathiyarupan, 23 yrs; Mr. S. Sivalingam, 49 yrs; Mr. N.
Nagarajah,; Mr. N. Sivakumar, 18 yrs; Mr. A. Mathivanan, I7 yrs; Mr. S.
Balachandramoorthy, 31 yrs...
and thousands more...
உண்மைகள் ஒருபோதும் உறங்குவதில்லை,
உறங்கவும் கூடா... Truth never sleeps - and it
should not....
|
Prologue - Sri Lanka... |
"If victory was to be achieved, it could not be
done by uniting all opposing forces but by dividing them and
creating dissension among them... Sri Lankan Kings never opposed the
entirety of India. When there was conflict with the Pandyans, they
sought the aid of the Cholas and acted against the Pandyans. When
the Pandyans and Cholas combined, they sought the aid of Kalinga.
Sinhala Kings had that high intelligence and knowledge of
statecraft." - National Security Minister Lalith
Athulathmudali at the 87th Mahapola held at the Sinhala Vidyalaya,
Kahatagasdigliya on the 27 May 1984
"The violence in the north) was also stopped by
the Indian Peace Keeping Force. (Though the fighting went on) no
Sinhalese, no Sinhalese soldiers were killed... only the Indian
soldiers and the LTTE (were killed). Yes, (I had to invite a foreign
army to do this on our sovereign soil)... I was doing what so
many Sinhala kings had done in the past in similar circumstances."
- ex President Jayawardene, Interview with Mervyn de Silva, Lanka
Guardian, 15 July 1990
|
That which Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, said... |
"The IPKF were given strict instructions not
to use
tactics or
weapons that could
cause major casualties
among the civilian population of Jaffna, who were
hostages to the LTTE.
The Indian Army have carried out these instructions with
outstanding discipline and courage, accepting, in the process a high
level of sacrifices for
protecting
the Tamil civilians".
(Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in the Lok
Sabha, 9 November 1987 - 18 days after the
Jaffna
Hospital Massacre on Diwali Day, 21 October 1987)
"The spokeswoman of the Indian High Commission in
Colombo said: 'The Indian peacekeeping force is
fighting
with one hand tied behind its back. It is carrying out this
operation under severe constraints'. The constraints according to India
are based on the army's reluctance to use its full fire power so as to
spare civilian casualties. Thus the advancing
troops have no air cover, and are
only occasionally using heavy
weapons to reduce Tiger defences". The
Guardian, 19October 1987
|
And that which Rajiv Gandhi, Commander in Chief of India's Armed Forces
did... |
"...The exemplary Indian Army
fought with one hand tied behind its back and the result was that
100,000 Tamils became refugees
in their own homeland. The exemplary Indian Army was sparing in its use
of heavy artillery, but
sustained artillery shelling
destroyed more than 50,000 homes in the Jaffna Peninsula. And Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi would have his members of Parliament believe that
the Indian Army acted with 'outstanding
discipline and courage' accepting sacrifices 'for
protecting Tamil civilians'.
Indo Sri Lanka Accord
and the Tamil National Struggle - Nadesan Satyendra, January 1988
|
The word & deed...
the Record Speaks... |
10 October 1987 |
The Indian
Army Launches Attack |
|
"..On October 10th, while I was on my way to Jaffna
town, I was told that the IPKF had gone and blasted the premises of
'Eelamurasu' and damaged the buildings of 'Murasoli' and arrested all
the employees. These attacks were reported to have taken place at 1a.m.
and 6 a.m. respectively. And at 6a.m., LTTE's TV station at Kopay was
damaged by the IPKF and the equipment and machinery was removed. These
actions by the IPKF were seen as unwarranted and they led to the LTTE
taking up arms again... The electricity supply was cut off and there
were no lights throughout Jaffna from 10th October until our departure
on the 14th of November..."
more
|
November 1987 |
Eduardo Marino, Report to International Alert
- Some Observations and Conclusions
following a trip to Jaffna Peninsula in November 1987 |
|
"Over a period of about 20 days
(commencing 9 October 1987) , the Indian Army's direct
attack on LTTE positions, and defence from LTTE attacks,
was coupled with the Indian Army's attack and storming
of still unevacuated Jaffna - and many villages and
settlements throughout the Peninsula - with widespread
(insofar as territory), indiscriminate (insofar as
targetting) and sustained (insofar as intensity)
artillery shelling. Only less widespread, sustained and
indiscriminate, there was air-strafing from helicopter
as well. It was not "cross-fire" that incidentally
killed thousands of civilians. The majority were
killed unavoidably inside their houses and huts under
shelling, or were shot at random by the roads and on the
streets. A large number of people were "only"
wounded - yet, many of them died in the absence of
medical care, especially under the 24-hour curfew over a
period of about one month, to mid-November.
... The situation became grotesquely
hopeless for many people in some areas : while the
curfew was being rigorously enforced - that is, with an
order in place to shoot-to-kill pedestrians -the
inhabitants were simultaneously ordered out of their
houses into the outskirt concentrations an absurd
operational overlapping inevitably leaving a good number
dead.
.... The population was not adequately
warned nor given time for preparations, and the places
to which they were referred (three improvised "camps"
took the bulk of the people, one of them a big Hindu
temple crammed with an estimated no less than 40000) had
not been prepared with the bare minimum hygiene
facilities as foreseen by the Law of War, not to
mention drinking-water, food, medicine and lighting. ...
the central fact is that the Indian Army attacked
Jaffna, and many other populated places throughout the
Peninsula, shelling and firing massively and
indiscriminately rather than at the LTTE selectively.
...In the North, the military result
has been that the LTTE guerrilla has been dislodged - as
distinct from destroyed or disarmed - from their main
position, Jaffna town. Other consequences have included
: material ruin for much of the population all over the
Province; physical and moral suffering for no less than
1 million people, including thousands of civilian
casualties counting both killed and wounded; real or
lasting peace for none among the Tamils so far.
... For military reasons, besides
firing and shelling,
there has. been considerable burning of houses and
huts - massively in some rural localities - by the
Indian infantry : so as to deny the Tamil guerrillas
fighting positions and hiding-places, especially on the
sides of roads and other routes feasible for army
convoys.
....On top of everything else there
has been the "unmilitary" or "unsoldiery" side of events
:- wanton killings out of rage, reprisals
against non-combatants, looting of homes of middle
and wealthier classes, soldier's assault of women,
a
murderous attack on the main hospital
victimising both patients and medical personnel, and
killing of a number of unarmed and disarmed guerrilla
suspects without trial according to the Law of War."
|
21 October
1987
|
Derek Brown in UK Guardian - ' systematic artillery
barrage' |
|
"The Indians have insisted
throughout the 11 day offensive that they have used
little artillery and no air cover to minimise civilian
casualties. That claim was sagging yesterday
under a heavy, and remarkably uniform, weight of
evidence from refugees and the few scraps of independent
confirmation coming out of the Jaffna peninsula.
The infantry advance, the student said, was
preceded by a
systematic artillery barrage. He had heard heavy
guns firing daily, and had seen two women killed by
the washing well in the Hindu Ladies College, one of
the main refugee camps where thousands have sought
shelter from the fighting. 'The people have no food but
they are not worried about that. Even if they are
starving, they worry only about security. They have
no cover from the shelling' he said.
He also
flatly denied the Indian claim that there had been no
air strikes.
He had seen helicopters and fixed wing aircraft of
the Sri Lankan air force attacking with bombs and
machine guns. The Sri Lankans, indeed, have more or
less openly admitted that their aircraft were used last
week, but they have insisted that the operations were
only on the direct request of the Indians.."
-
Michael Hamlyn, London Times, 21
October 1987 - "A senior Sri Lankan
security source admitted last night what had previously
only been rumoured - that despite Indian
protestations about their self denial of air cover
during operations, on one occasion, air cover had been
provided by the Sri Lankans at the Indians' urgent
request.
It happened when a group of commandos
had been air dropped into an unsecured landing ground
north of Jaffna and suffered heavy casualties. The
Indians needed instant help, and the Sri Lankans brought
up helicopters to give covering machine gun fire to an
armoured rescue. A recording of radio messages during
these operations smuggled out of the north and
circulating in the capital makes it clear that the
Indians and Sri Lankans were working close together"
|
21 October 1987 |
Diwali Day massacre at Jaffna General Hospital
|
|
"..The Indian Army came firing into the Radiology
Block and fired indiscriminately at this whole mass of people huddled
together. We saw patients dying. We lay there without moving a finger
pretending to be dead. We were wondering all the time whether we would
be burnt or shot when the bodies of the dead were collected ... "
more
"India forbids journalists from entering the combat zone,
and no independent confirmation of the situation in Jaffna was
available... Reports from officials and refugees said two thirds of the
city's 150,000 residents had fled or sought refuge in schools, Hindu
temples and public buildings.." - International Herald
Tribune, 21 October 1987
|
22 October 1987 |
Bruce Palling in the UK Independent
- 'Hospital hit atleast seven times' |
|
"The (Indian) spokeswoman said that
Indian forces had not entered nor touched the Jaffna
Hospital. But a report from a local correspondent, who
recently returned from the Jaffna peninsula, said it was
hit at least seven times earlier this week"
|
25 October
1987 |
Simon Freeman, Sunday Times - 'one
Tamil family executed by the Indians by having a tank run over them' |
|
"... (in Mannar) we heard the familiar stories from Tamil
refugees from Jaffna. Dr. B.B. Easwaraj, 27, who had fled the town two
days earlier, said that large sections of Jaffna's main hospital had
been destroyed by shelling. Dozens of bodies of men, women and
children lay rotting in the mortuary.
Phillip
Constantine,26, another refugee, said that
one Tamil family had been executed by the Indians by having a tank
run over them. Mannar like many areas in the north and east of Sri
Lanka, has been devastated by almost a decade of fighting between the
Tigers and the Sri Lankan army and now, the Indians. Three months ago,
when the Indians arrived to act as peace keepers, the local Tamils
greeted the Indians as saviours. But as one Sri Lankan police officer
told me, they now regard them with the same contempt as they once did
the Sri Lankan police and army.."
|
27
October 1987
|
Derek Brown in the UK Guardian - "It
is the Tigers who seem to have won the battle for hearts and minds.." |
|
"...Jaffna is a broken and silent place of refugees
clustered in churches and temples among empty roads. The area behind the
Fort bears all the signs of two savage campaigns, first by the Sri
Lankan army and now by the Indians. It is the Tigers who seem to have
won the battle for hearts and minds... though they wanted peace more
than anything, the Tigers were 'their' boys and the Indians were
outsiders...
Last Thursday, he (a refugee) said that he had been ordered from his
nearby house by Sikh soldiers, who were apparently clearing the area
before an offensive. One of the soldiers struck him and when his
daughter protested, she too was beaten.
Another old man told
how his daughter had been killed when she returned to the family home to
fetch her jewellery...a middle aged woman had half a leg missing - blown
off by an Indian shell. A 14 year old girl clutched a stomach wound.
A young woman with a blood soaked plaster on her leg said she had been
unconscious when Indian soldiers 'liberated' the hospital last week.
She was certain that the Tigers had not been in occupation at the time,
as the Indians claimed..."
|
8
November 1987 |
London Sunday Times -
'the countryside is just as ravaged as the towns' |
|
"Tens of thousands of refugees are living in appalling
conditions in makeshift camps in Jaffna, according to a senior Sri Lanka
Red Cross official, despite claims by the government of President Junius
Jayawardene and the Indian Army that the town is returning to
normal...it is a ghost town. The streets are deserted. Thousands of
people are living in temples because they are afraid to go back to their
homes. They have no electricity. They need everything - clothes,
medicine, even candles and matches. Many buildings have been destroyed.
I saw three or four dead bodies on the streets... 20,000 refugees
share three or four toilets... It is a similar story in the Tamil
eastern coastal provinces... hundreds of buildings in Trincomalee have
been destroyed... the countryside is just as ravaged as the towns. He
(the Red Cross Official) said that he was describing what he had seen as
accurately as possible in the hope that international publicity would
help the victims.."
|
January 1988 |
Amnesty International Annual Report, for period
January to December 1987 - Rape & Deliberate Killing of unarmed Tamil
civilians |
|
"After its forces entered Sri Lanka on 30 July, the
IPKF was increasingly accused of raping Tamil women and of deliberately
killing dozens of unarmed Tamil civilians, among them elderly people,
women and children...in several cases there
was eye witness evidence that the victims were non combatants shot
without provocation...
Several dozen Tamil women, some of whom needed
hospital treatment, testified that they were raped by IPKF personnel.
A local magistrate in the north reportedly found the IPKF had been
responsible for seven cases of rape in December." -
|
30 April 1988 |
A.P.Venkateshwaran, Former Indian Foreign Secretary, at World Federation of
Tamils Conference |
|
"...as an Indian I feel ashamed that under the
Indo Sri
Lanka agreement, our forces are fighting with Tamils whom they
went to protect. Speaking of blaming the Indian soldiers,
soldiers are meant to carry out commands, but I do believe that in
our own Indian ethics, soldiers are not merely meant to carry out
commands because if you look at the history and the mythology and
the culture which is Indian...We are supposed to fight only for
Dharma. Only if the war is righteous shall you fight it....
I believe that the Indian Government had betrayed its own culture
and ethics. For the first time, it has sent out soldiers to
fight when there was no cause for us to fight. There was no purpose
for us to fight. When I speak to the Indian army officers, whom I
know and who have come back after serving in Sri Lanka, they are the
most puzzled and most unhappy people because they do not know the
cause for which they are fighting. The guilt, therefore, rests
entirely on those who sent them to do this dastardly business of
fighting in Sri Lanka against our Tamil brothers and sisters..."
more
|
January 1989 |
Amnesty International Annual Report for period
January to December 1988 |
|
"Thousands of people were detained without charge
or trial, and dozens 'disappeared' following arrest by the Sri Lankan
security forces and by the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) deployed in
the northeast. The fate of hundreds who had
disappeared in previous years remained inadequately investigated.
There were many allegations of torture. "
|
2 August 1989 |
India's Mylai
- the Valvetiturai Massacre |
|
On 2 August 1989, the so called
Indian Peace Keeping Force deliberately killed
63 Tamil civilians in Valvettiturai in the
Jaffna Peninsula in a massacre that was later
described as India's Mylai."...this massacre is
worse than My Lai. Then American troops simply
ran amok. In the Sri Lankan village, the Indians
seem to have been more systematic; the victims
being forced to lie down, and then shot in the
back..".
more
|
19 September 1990 |
Amnesty International Sri Lanka Briefing |
|
"At least 43 people (Tamils) are known to have
'disappeared' following arrest by the IPKF... The majority of the
'disappearances for which the IPKF were reportedly responsible occurred
in the Jaffna District in October and November 1987, the period of the
main IPKF offensive on Jaffna town"
|
7 March 1999 |
A.P.Venkateshwaran, former Indian Foreign Secretary at Eelam Tamils
Solidarity Conference Madurai |
|
"...Rajiv
Gandhi foolishly sent Indian troops to Sri Lanka in 1987. But
what happened afterwards was the
Tamils were persecuted by the troops. The war against the Tamils was
escalated. When the then Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayawardene met
Rajiv Gandhi in 1986 during the SAARC conference in Bangalore,
Jayawardene warned Rajiv that it would be dangerous for India if a
separate state were be established in Eelam and then extended by
merging Tamil Nadu. Rajiv easily believed what Jayawardene said. I
talked to Rajiv immediately after JR left, as it was not proper for
me to interfere in the talks between the two heads of state. I said
that things would never develop the way Jayawardene's predicted.
'This was rubbish. Tamil Nadu will never be separated from India -
and I like to say this as a Tamil'. But he, Rajiv believed what the
head of a neighbouring state said than what I said. The Indian Peace
Keeping Force was sent to Sri Lanka within a few months after I
resigned my job. You all know what happened after this -
thousands of Eelam Tamils were killed and more than 1500 Indian
troops lost their lives. In the end, the Indian troops were asked to
withdraw from Sri Lanka without any gratitude..."
|
21 March 2004 |
IPKF - Innocent People Killing Force,
Dr. T. Somasekaram, |
|
"..the Indian Army came here,
massacred
innocent Tamil civilians,
raped our women and
plundered our valuables. The acronym IPKF will always stand for
Indian People Killing Force where we are concerned.We will one day erect
a memorial in the heart of Jaffna town, in the centre of Hospital Road,
in memory of all the innocent civilians – ranging in age from the very
old past 80 to young children massacred by the IPKF and to the women who
were raped."
|
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