"On 28
January 1987, the government launched a major military
operation, ostensibly directed at a Tamil guerrilla
base at Kokkatticholai near the eastern coastal town of
Batticaloa. An estimated 2000 commandos of the Special
Task Force supported by bomber planes and helicopter
gun-ships were involved in this operation. Commandos
surrounded six villages covering an area of 25 square
miles.
As the helicopters began machine-gunning the villages,
the inhabitants fled into the nearby jungles for cover.
Commandos moving in South African-built armoured
'Buffels' fired heavy machine guns into the villages.
In the course of this operation, an armoured vehicle
with some commandos in it was blasted by a landmine
presumably planted by a Tamil guerrilla group. The
government claimed that 13 commandos died as a result
of the blast.
Within three days of the launching of the military
operation which began on January 28, according to the
Batticaloa Citizens' Committee, an estimated 150 to 175
civilians were killed by the STF commandos. The victims
included 23 employees of a prawn culture farm run by
Serendib Sea Foods Ltd, a fifty per cent American owned
Hong Kong based company.
The employees were rounded up, herded onto a tractor
and trailer, taken to a road junction and shot dead.
Seven of the victims were boys aged 12 to 14. Forty
others who had sought refuge in the farm were also shot
and killed. The bodies were later burnt on piles of old
tyres obtained by the security forces from the town's
bus depot. Subsequently, the commandos rounded up
nearly 83 people from the villages of Mudalikuda,
Munaikadu, llupadichenai, Thandiady and Mahiladitivu
and deliberately killed them. Another 12 people were
reported to be missing and are feared dead. The
operations zone had been virtually sealed off. Some
escaped by swimming across the lagoon, but several
others who tried to cross by boat were killed when they
were attacked from helicopters.
The government denied the massacre at the farm but the
Managing Director, Mr. Victor Santhiapillai, who is a
former Executive Director of the International Trade
Centre (a United Nations body) and the Company's former
Manager and the present Consultant, Mr. Bruce Cyr (an
American national) rebutted the government's denial and
confirmed that the massacre in fact took place.
They also contradicted the government's claim that
those killed were either terrorists or that they died
in the crossfire. Rejecting the government's Media
Centre's claim, the Managing Director, Mr.
Santhiapillai, said, "I totally reject the Media
Centre's charge that the 22 Serendib Sea foods staff
members (plus 12 still missing) who were shot by the
security forces were terrorists, The Centre must find
some other more intelligent and plausible ways of
handling such incidents." (The Island,4 February
1987).
Angered by Mr. Bruce Cyr's revelations about the
massacre, the government first announced that he was
going to be prosecuted under the Emergency Regulations
for making 'false statements' about the killing of the
Company's employees, but later retracted following
representations from the American Embassy in
Colombo.
In an appeal sent to President Jayawardene calling for
an independent judicial investigation, the Batticaloa
Citizens' Committee alleged that "young Tamils are
being systematically killed", and that the "security
forces were going into houses in the area ordering out
males between the ages of 11 and 45 and shooting
them"." (Tamil Times, March 1987)
