INDICTMENT AGAINST SRI LANKA

Sri Lanka's Genocidal War - '95 to '01

Massacre of Tamils at the Jeyanthipuram camp - 23 May 1995

"The (extra judicial) execution (of 4 Tamils) at the Jeyanthipuram camp is one of the most horrific in a growing list of abuses by the Sri Lanka security forces in the town and surrounding villages... The executions followed a night of terror for people living in the heavily populated area between Jeyanthipuram and the neighbouring police camp at Iruthayapuram. Witnesses say the forces were firing from the camp through out the night. 'First there was a loud noise like a grenade and then dum-dum-dum. Every type of gun we heard. It was non stop until morning. 13 continuous hours' one woman said. She picked up the pile of spent bullets she had collected from the garden and inside the house: her cupped hands were overflowing. The security forces have not offered an explanation for the events. However local people believe they intended to present the firing squad victims as attacking terrorists. By the time families were allowed to collect the bodies, the men had been buried for 24 hours. People who saw the bodies after they were handed over said the faces were burnt and limbs bloated, suggesting they had been treated with acid. The night of terror was not an isolated incident in Batticaloa district. Thousands of Tamil youths, including girls as young as 13, have been detained in daily round ups for suspected Tiger sympathisers... Batticaloa had known torture and disappearances before, especially during 1990-91 after the government recaptured the town from the Tigers..." (Suzanne Goldenberg reporting from Batticaloa in the London Guardian on 3 June 1995)

"The bodies of Ravichandran Kuganathan, Rajalingam Mariyadas and Nadarajah Pararajasingham, all from Batticaloa town, were found in the evening of 23 May 1995 under a palmyrah tree near the post at Vijayapuram, Batticaloa. They had been arrested together with one other person from their homes around 6 a.m. on that day. They had shot gun injuries in the chest. Their bodies had initially been illegally buried by the police. However, later, after a local member of parliament informed government authorities, a magisterial inquiry was ordered and the bodies exhumed... During the inquiry, a fourth young man, who had been arrested and who had also been shot under the palmyrah tree but had survived his injuries, was called to give evidence. According to Amnesty International sources, he stated that he had been 'accidentally shot at home whilst he was sleeping'."(Amnesty International Report ASA 37/10/95, June 1995)

"As a reprisal for a landmine explosion at Koduvamadu, 6 Tamil civilians were shot dead by the Sri Lanka security forces. Of these four were women. Two were men. The four women were working on Pethankudah farm near Koduvamadu, when they were shot dead. Veerasingham Komaleswari (32), Kathirkamathamby (45), Sembakodi Pakiam (35) and her daughter Pavanithurai Bhavani (160, Velakutti Gunaseelan (28), from Thampanam village, Abdual Rahman, (27) an ice cream vendor from Eravur, were those who were killed.Thangarasa Ranjini (22) and Ariarathinam Mallika (17) were admitted to hospital with injuries. The dead bodies were taken to the Eravur hospital. The TULF M.P. Mr.K.Thuraisingham has complained about these killings of Tamil civilians." (Colombo Daily, Virakesari, 14 June 1995)

see also Genocide in Kumarapuram... 11 February 1996

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