Srilankanatrocities.com

by K.S., Tamil Araichchi, May 14, 2008
“I still remember clearly receiving those patients alive - cut and bleeding - and dead from that event, at Jaffna Teaching Hospital as a third year Medical Student. I am glad to hear someone is alive to tell the story.” — Sangam member 
Extracts from Wikipedia:
The Kumudini [ Kumuthini] boat massacre happened on 15 May 1985 when at least 23 minority Sri Lankan Tamil men, women and children on a ferry boat named Kumudini sailing from the Island of Delft to the island of Nainatheevu were alleged to have been killed by Sri Lankan Navy personnel.

According to eye witness accounts six men believed to be from the Sri Lanka navy, dressed in T-shirts and blue longs and some in shorts, boarded the ferry boat. One by one the passengers were called to the aft section of the boat and told to shout their name, age, address and the destination of their journey. Then they were hacked to death.

Eyewitness accounts were documented by Amnesty International. The government-owned ferry boat named Kumudini plying between number of islets in the Northern province was boarded with passengers at about 7.45 a.m. on May 15, 1985. After it had moved from the island of Delft towards the island of Nainativu, it was ordered stopped by some men who came in a fiber glass boat. About six men boarded Kumudini while about two remained in the fiber glass boat which they tied on to Kumudini. The men who boarded Kumudini had rifles and all of them were dressed variously in blue pants or shorts and T-shirts as worn by the Sri Lankan navy personnel.

All the passengers and crew were ordered to enter the forepart of the boat and ordered below deck. All the passengers were also made to shout out their names, status, locality and where bound to and then they were ordered to come out one at a time. One man pointing out a gun shouted out such an orders in broken Tamil. The eye witness or the others in the fore section did not know what was happening to each person who was led away in this manner owing to the noise created by the forced shouting of passengers.

When the eyewitness approached the upper desk, he saw blood all over and the cut pieces of human bodies. At this juncture the eye witness shouted and refused to move.

“I was then hit on the head and I fell. I felt that I was dragged and cut on my head by some kind of a hatchet. I received further injuries on my stomach and legs and fell between the boards of the bottom of the boat. I pretended to be dead and lay there. I felt further bodies falling over mine and the cries of distress of men and women.”

About 45 minutes after the attack on the eye witness the fiber glass boat left the ferry boat. Although various estimates put the death toll anywhere from 36 to 48, the Amnesty International has names of only 23 persons killed in this incident.

For more details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumudini_boat_massacre

Pictures at bottom of page: http://www.kumuthini.blogspot.com/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 30, 2005
AS-57-2005

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

The Bindunuwewa Massacre and Sri Lanka’s defective justice system

On 25 October 2000, more than 25 young Tamils at a rehabilitation centre in Bindunuwewa near Bandarawela in the south-central part of the island were attacked and killed by a Sinhalese group.  Who were the actual culprits?  Who were their masterminds?  To these questions Sri Lanka’s justice system has no answers.

Likewise, after nearly five years the survivors of this massacre and the relatives of the dead are still left with these questions unanswered.  This most horrendous act of killing young people, who were in a rehabilitation centre, which was under the protection of the Sri Lankan government, has proved only one thing; that the Sri Lankan system of justice is guilty of ensuring immunity for offenders.

Forty-one persons were charged with participating in the massacre.  However, the Sri Lankan courts have gradually acquitted all of these persons on the basis that there was no evidence to convict them.  The last of these acquittals came on 27 May 2005 when the Supreme Court acquitted the remaining accused on the basis that the evidence against them lacked merit.

That the massacre took place killing 27 detainees and injuring 14 others is not in doubt.  That the modes of killing were so ugly and cruel is also not in doubt.  That the Sri Lankan government was responsible for the protection of these detainees is also well established.  However, just who the actual perpetrators of this heinous crime were, the Sri Lankan justice system has been unable to resolve.  Was this deliberate, or was it merely a case of negligence and incompetence on the part of investigating officers?  Perhaps this will also never be known.  However, that the Sri Lankan state is responsible for the failure to provide justice in this instance is blatantly clear.

The primary responsibility for this failure lies with the Sri Lankan police who had the legal responsibility to investigate into this matter and to provide all evidence that was necessary to secure a successful conviction.  Obviously the investigators failed in their task.  Will there be an investigation into the failure to conduct proper investigations by the police?  Given the magnitude of the crime, such an investigation is imperative.  Who will initiate such an investigation?  The obligation lies with the Inspector General of Police and with the government itself.  The failure to properly investigate such a massacre is a serious breach of trust by the police service in Sri Lanka.  If the Inspector General of Police and the government do not conduct a thorough investigation into the issue, significant credibility will be lost in regards to the policing system as well as the Sri Lankan government’s claims to ensure justice and respect for human rights.

There is clearly also a failure on the part of the prosecutors in Sri Lanka; a failure that lies with the Attorney General’s department itself.  The department should not have filed indictments against persons if they did not have sufficient evidence to prove a case successfully before a court.  To the accused, it is a great injustice to bring them before a court without sufficient evidence.  To the survivors of the massacre and the relatives of the dead such prosecutions amount to deception.  Also for the public, who would have sought justice, this is also a betrayal of their trust.

When viewing this case, it is not surprising to learn that there is only a four per cent success rate for prosecutions in the country.  The judges, the prosecutors and the government have deliberated over and over on this fact.  However, how can there be successful prosecution without a criminal investigation system that is able to conduct professional and thorough inquiries before proceeding to court? Further, how can there be successful prosecution without a prosecuting system that thoroughly measures the evidence before prosecutions are filed?  The reason for the low rate of success for convictions is thus the defective police investigation system and the prosecution system themselves.  

There is a lobby in Sri Lanka that protests continuously for victim’s rights.  Leading judges, prosecutors and also high-ranking policemen are constantly talking about victim’s rights.  Yet, where are the victim’s rights in the case of the Bindunuwewa massacre?  Are not these victims the same as victims of any other crime?  Is it not hypocritical on the part of this lobby if they do not question the denial of victim’s rights to the victims of this massacre?

Some Tamils might say that the massacre, as well as the failure to conduct a proper investigation, is part of a scheme to deny justice to them.  However, the truth is that in present day Sri Lanka, justice is denied to everyone.  This massacre was not the first of its kind, and will certainly not be the last. Where, when and for what purpose other massacres will happen remains unknown?  But they will happen and there is nothing in the Sri Lankan legal system to suggest that they will be dealt with any more competently than Bindunuwewa was. At present Sri Lanka has neither the capacity to properly investigate such crimes, or to prevent them. Indeed, justice in Sri Lanka is in deep peril.

If there is hope in these circumstances it lies with the people.  It is time to condemn and to revolt against a system of misadministration of justice that is destroying the capacity of Sri Lanka to survive as a decent society.  It is the people who can bring to trial the criminal investigation and prosecution system in the country.  If the people fail to intervene to save their system of justice, Sri Lankan society is destined to join those other nations, who have already lost their capacity to survive.

# # #

About AHRC The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984

http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2005statements/308/

By: K.Mylvaganam - From Vanni.
Courtesy: TamilCanadian - September 11, 2008

I was awakened from my sleep by the roar of the planes. There were several bombers circling the Kilinochchi town, where I stay. I checked my watch and it was 4.00 a.m. I ran into the room where the water pump and the generator are kept. It is comparatively safer than my house as that room has a concrete roof. Luckily the planes vanished without dropping any bombs. I couldn’t believe it, as it is customary for a few bombs to be dropped at random. Hence I went back to bed only to hear the sounds of the planes coming back. So I had to seek refuge again in the said room. I have a bunker in the back garden away from my house. But I didn’t dare to go there in the dark fearing the snakes. My torch was not bright enough as batteries are old and in short supply in Kilinochchi. The planes came back a few times and off they went for good. The time was past 5.00 and I did not feel like going to bed after that. I guessed that they must have gone to Puthukudiyiruppu as that is the place that gets bombed quite often.

News started trickling in a little later. I heard that it was Puthukudiyiruppu that was bombed and that several bombs had been dropped over Puthukudiyiruppu. One of the bombs has fallen in the premises of the Sivasubramanium Vidhiyalaya damaging parts of its main building, its boundary wall and the play ground. (see pic)

Rest of the bombs fell on the business area and private residences nearby. A grinding mill belonging to the Puthukudiyiruppu M.P.C.S, a sewing shop and book depot were completely demolished.

The office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was only 200 metres from where the bomb fell. The Puthukudiyiruppu hospital was 800 metres. The Divisional Secretariat, the Divisional Education Office, Banks and more than 150 shops were also in the vicinity.

The GeneralManager of the Puthukudiyiruppu M.P.C.S. stated that the society had incurred a loss of Rs.789,000.00 by the society alone.

The Principal of the Sivasubramnium Vidhiyalaya Mr.R.Selvanayagam stated:

“My house was in the ward 2 of Puthukudiyiruppu. But my family and I had to move out from there due to a recent bombing. We are now in the school hostel. When I woke up at the sound of the bombers I came out to see the entire sky lit with Para-lights. I told my wife and children to run for safety and I ran towards the front part of the school. As the bombers approached the school I fell prostrate on the ground. When the bomb fell I was tossed up by the explosion and I fell again. Soil clumps fell all over me. There was water and wet mud as well falling on me. First I thought I was bleeding badly. I wanted to get up and run but run where? It was pitch-dark also. I later realized that they came from the pit created by the bomb. The pit was so deep that water has collected in it. The water and the mud came from that pit.

When it dawned I found the boundary wall, school buildings and the play ground were damaged. There are 1300 students attached to our school. Yesterday a further 150 students, who have come as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) also joined our school. Thank God the children were not at school at the time of the bombing.

Our school is now temporarily closed. The reopening of it will be according to the decision taken by the Regional Education Office and the UNICEF.”

Statement from Mrs.Francis Thavam, who was injured:

“I am originally from Chundikuli Jaffna. We came here in 2006 to visit our daughter, who was blessed with a child. Since the war broke out we could not return to Jaffna. The road was blocked at Muhamalai. At the time of the incident we were five – four children and I – in the house and we were fast asleep. I didn’t realize as to what had happened. House was covered completely by smoke and it was dark as well. Even though I realized that some things were falling on me I could not get up as I was partly buried in it. It took more than half an hour for the neighbours to take me out of the heap I was covered in. I am now at the hospital. I do not know where my children are. I don’t know what to do.”