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Home > Struggle for Tamil Eelam > Human Rights & the Tamil Nation > University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna Branch) > The Clash of Ideologies and the Continuing Tragedy in the Batticaloa and Amparai Districts, 8 May 1991- Table of Contents > Introduction > Chapter 1.Preface > Chapter 2.Reports > Chapter 3. Reports - Personal > Chapter 4. The Refugee camp at the Eastern University - - Vantharumoolai > Chapter 5. The Armed Forces > Chapter 6. The Social Fabric and Communal Relations > Chapter 7. The Eastern Borderlands > Chapter 8. Colonisation - Issues and Non-Issues > Appendices
Introduction
- Corpses in the Batticaloa District
Despite periodic massacres, life in Batticaloa was tending towards some low level of human existence with the trappings of normality. But the sharp deterioration in the situation from about 24th April 1991 ushered in what many observers feel is a new level of calculated terror, reminiscent of counter insurgency in the South and the headless bodies of Thirukkovil.
On 24th April, two headless bodies were displayed near a police post in Iruthayapuram. On the same day Kunaratnamani (18) of Mankerni, Valaichenai, was taken away by the forces. Kunaratnamani was of Indian Tamil origin and his father Arul, a long standing employee of the Civil Rights Movement, was in the process of arranging for his schoolboy son to come to Colombo. Kunaratnamani's severed head and body were found in the area the following morning (25th).
The forces warned the people to dispose of the body before the ICRC arrived. Two bodies were also reported in Mandur. The next corpse was that of a younger brother of the LTTE area leader Karikalan, an employee of the Telecommunica tions Department. He is said to have been personally uninvolved. On 1st May, the bodies of two girls were discovered near the second bridge to Puliyantheevu in Batticaloa.
The Sunday Times of 5th May reported: "Batticaloa residents who confined themselves to their homes said that the streets were deserted by noon. They also spoke of reports of a mysterious van abducting people...."
The new situation coincides with the appointment of Major General Cecil Waidyaratne as commander of the Eastern Province. However, the Brigadier in Batticaloa is said to have appeared genuinely surprised. Observers hold the government forces responsible for this outrage with the same degree of certainty as with which the LTTE is held responsible for massacres of Sinhalese villagers further south. These activities have become the ceremonial aspect of widely reported peace overtures.
Observers coming from Batticaloa describe recent killings as totally counterproductive, in a region where the peasant expression 'sowing corpses' has come to assume deeper significance.
On the positive side, there appears to have been an improvement in Kalmunai. It was this STF controlled region that saw headless corpses last September. In Kalmunai according to re ports, disappearances have ceased in recent times. Those taken in round ups are mostly released immediately. Someone released after three days would usually have experienced severe beating. Of those detained, it is said that both an acknowledgement and the place of detention are usually given.
