3000 CIVILIANS
FORCED BY IPKF TO
SQUAT UNDER SCORCHING SUN FOR NINE
HOURS
We carry below a
translation of a special report published
in the JUNIOR VIKATAN, a popular
Tamil-language weekly of Madras in its
issue of 24 February. JUNIOR VIKATAN is a
lively sister publication of the
presitigious ANANDA VIKATAN with its
office at 757, Anna Salai, Madras 600
002. (Editor: S. Balasubramaniam.
Associate Editor: Mathan)
`The question whether the military
offensive ordered against the Liberation
Tigers was justified or not may be left
aside for the moment as a debatable issue.
There could be pros and cons. Okay, let us
even grant for the sake of argument that
there were good reasons that motivated the
action. But how in the name of humanity
could anyone condone or justify the
high-handed and brutal way in which the
ordinary citizens of Jaffna were treated?'
asked a prominent newspaperman speaking to
us in Madras. He had just come from Sri
Lanka.
He continued: 'Why did Indian newspapers
who prattle time and again about freedom
and democracy in their own country maintain
a monumental silence and callous
indifference when in the stupid hope of
disarming the Liberation Tigers in a day or
two, the Indian forces went about killing
innocent peaceful citizens and treating
them as a herd of cattle?
`Imagine the plight of the people. Not
knowhing when a shell might burst, and take
away whose life, at what place, the dazed
citizens of Jaffna were running
helter-skelter in seach of shelter, and
having found it, hiding in fear wondering
whether it would be safe enough? The
Liberation Tigers were living mingled with
the people it was being shouted. So what?
Where else could they live? Does that mean
that the entire population has to be put to
sword and fire because the Indian Army does
not understand the concept of a "degree of
war".
`There was this incident in the
"Muddasukkadai" junction ( a commercial and
business area) in the Jaffna town,' he
said. 'A Liberation Tiger had taken a
pot-shot at an Indian jawan and killed him.
Within a short time a whole battalion of
Indian soldiers moved into the area,
cordoned off all the environs, marched
every man, woman and child found in the
area and ordered them to squat on the
tarred roads in the hot sun. This began
around 9 a.m. and very soon they had lined
up nearly 3000 persons. There was
absolutely no consideration whether they
were old folk, elderly men or women or the
sick or the young. Until about 6p.m. they
were kept there, without food, without
drinking water, with not even the facility
to ease themselves, until all shops and
roads and lanes and nooks and corners were
flushed in search of the lone Tiger
guerrilla.
`Any young Tamil, irrespective of who he
was, and without any questions being asked,
was promptly assaulted with rifle butts. In
some instances even elderly people were
shabbily manhandled.
`One group of soldiers who entered the
office of the Tamil daily newspaper, the
EELANADU, pushed and dragged all the
members of the staff to the road outside.
Interestingly, the editor in charge, Mr.
Perumal is a person of recent Indian origin
from the plantations and one who was
closely associated with the elderly and
respected one-time editor Mr. Haran (He was
an Indian national who passed away later in
India - Ed.) Mr Perumal himself was dragged
out and when he tried to explain, he was
beaten with a belt and a piece of wire.
`Next, Indian soldiers stormed into the
well-known Tamil Hindu educational
institution, the Vaidheeswara Vidyalayam,
also in the same area, and pulled out both
the men and women teachers and roughed them
up in the presence of their own students.
Some of them suffered face injuries as a
result of being pushed and hit by rifle
butts.
`Humiliated as they were by being forced
to sit on the public road like convicted
criminals, the suffering people were not
even allowed to leave the place to ease
themselves, despite several pleas.
`Repeatedly the soldiers went up to the
group of squatting people and threatened
them: "You should know the fellow who
killed our soldier. It could not have
happened without someone here knowing the
identity of the person. Tell us, tell us
... or else ...", they kept shouting at
them.
`Unable to endure the tormenting any
longer, an elderly citizen spoke up: "Sirs,
we come to the town not to observe what is
happening here. We come here on business,
urgent business for our living, and once we
finish it, we get out of this problematical
place as fast as we came in. We don't like
to remain here one moment longer than is
necessary. We do not have the time (because
of the daily evening curfew) nor the mind
nor the authority to look with suspicion at
everyone else who is here. As for you, you
have sentry points here every 50 yards. You
should be having at least 100 jawans in
this area guarding, watching, questioning,
examining all of us. Are you fair in asking
us this question that should properly be
addressed to your own sentries?"
`The elderly man who spoke up, paid the
price for it. He was slapped and
kicked.
`Only vehicles, whether buses or cars or
two-wheelers, which have been issued IPKF
passes could carry people. Even if you have
a woman with childbirth pains to be rushed
to hospital you have to find a vehicle with
a pass. Getting a pass is not that easy
anyway. It would be like boring into a
mountain to catch a mouse. Many people who
have waited vainly in queues for these
passes decide that it would be easier to
walk the miles.
`On the appeal made by the Liberation
Tigers, or maybe because of their threats,
government officers have refused to attend
offices. As a result essential government
business is paralysed. Only the Jaffna
General hospital is functioning
somewhat.
`Out of the Jaffna newspapers, only the
"Eelanadu" has been given permission to
come out, since January 15, and that too
under a specific condition; that no news
relating to happenings in Jaffna could be
published without IPKF clearance. The
publishers were told that the imposition of
this condition itself should not be
published.
`On top of all these, the harassment
that Tamils undergo at the hands of some
supposed Tamil militant group of youths on
the Jaffna-Colombo road, at a spot barely
50-100 yards from the IPKF and Sri Lanka
army checkpoints has been causing untold
misery. When they identify merchants and
business people they are promptly abducted
from the place and ransom demands are made;
apart from this, all travellers are
questioned and treated with disrespect. The
funny thing is that such high-handed
behaviour, extortion and robbery take place
in such close proximity to the IPKF camps.
One does not know whether a part of this
loot goes into the hands of the IPKF
personnel. Jaffna businessman
V.K.Rajaratnam who deals in radios,
Television sets, Tape recorders etc. was
recently identified by these youths and a
ransom demand of Rs.3 lakhs was made in
return for his freedom. Only after a
sizeable portion of the ransom money was
paid was he released.
`The Jaffna residents are convinced in
their own minds that any attempts to hold
elections without arriving at a political
settlement with the Liberation Tigers would
only result in a volcanic eruption of
violence in Jaffna. Will the Government of
India, and its officials grasp this
reality?'
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