12 April
As the town was buzzing with commercial activity in preparation for the upcoming Tamil and Sinhala New Year celebrations, a parcel bomb exploded at the vegetable market on Central Road around 3:50 pm. Six Sinhalese civilians and a soldier were killed. [4] Although the bomb was widely suspected to have been planted by the LTTE targeting security personnel, local Tamils felt that it was a setup by the security forces to attack Tamils and this was reportedly confirmed to a Tamil official by a Navy man. [11]
Soon after the explosion, some naval personnel stationed nearby came running to the blast site shooting at random, reportedly hitting some people. [4] A small crowd was also seen throwing stones and breaking vehicles on the premises of a large Tamil business establishment near the blast site. [11]
Later on, within 15 minutes of the blast, gangs of young Sinhalese men armed with knives, swords, clubs and guns arrived in trucks and auto-rickshaws. The gangs consisted of security personnel in civilian clothing, auxiliary home guards and thugs from an illegal settlement under Army patronage. What started out as a relatively minor mob violence now became an organized one on a large scale, with the mob joining the organized gangs. Numbering between 100 and 150, the gangs went on a rampage through the town's business area along the Central Road and North Coast Road, with Tamil businesses being the primary targets. Tamil shops were singled out and systematically looted and burned, reminiscent of the anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983. The large Tamil business establishment, RR Marketing, was set on fire by the gangs; the owner and his employees were able to flee, and he had to start over for the fifth time since 1983. Overall, about 30 Tamil shops and 2 Muslim shops were burned. [4] [11]
Tamil civilians were also attacked, hacked to death and burned with gasoline. Several Tamil women were slashed with knives and swords, including a mother and her two-year-old child, with their faces, hands and breasts being mutilated. Reportedly six Tamil women were killed. Some Tamils were thrown into their burning shops. [4] The Navy was at the centre of the violence, actively participating, with a senior naval officer later admitting to the Navy's involvement in organizing the violence. [11] [12] Most witnesses claimed that the Navy was specially brutal toward civilians. [13] A Tamil youth who was shot at by a sailor but was missed as he was trying to get to his father's shop on Central Road witnessed the brutality of the naval personnel. The youth saw a sailor handing a man over to a sword-wielding thug telling him, "This is a Tamil, chop him". He also saw another sailor striking the head of a Tamil woman lying on the road injured from the market blast with the butt of his gun. [11]
The violence later spread to the outskirts of the town. [4] In Anpuvalipuram, a grenade was thrown at a Tamil shop and two Tamil shops were burned down, reported pro-rebel TamilNet citing civil sources. [14] In Linganagar, a petrol station was burned and a Tamil man standing in front of it was hacked to death; two Tamils travelling on a motorcycle were slashed and burned alive; [15] three burned bodies of Tamils were found inside a three-wheeler the next day, reported pro-rebel TamilNet citing medical sources. [16] Tamil youths were slashed in areas in Keniyadi and near Madathady junction. [15]
There was also a surge in sexual violence against Tamil women by the security forces. Four women who went to a shop that came under attack were abducted in a van and subsequently raped and robbed. A medical practitioner reported that Anpuvalipuram had a high prevalence of rape by the Navy and home guards, and mentioned an 18-year-old girl and two older women as among those who had come to consult him from there. [17]
While the violence raged for two hours, the security forces and the police stationed in the area remained spectators without intervening. The policemen were ordered by their Headquarters Inspector not to take action against the Sinhalese gangs. Further evidence of state complicity was reinforced by the fact that all attempts by the businesses to contact the top security officials by telephone went unanswered despite the assurance given to them earlier that year that they could be called in case of an emergency. [11]
A rumour was now floating around about an ethnic cleansing campaign at night. The plan was to drive the Tamils out of Trincomalee permanently and displace them in refugee camps. Fearing further violence, many Tamils fled their homes, seeking refuge in public buildings and places of worship. The violence was stopped only after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh telephoned Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and urged him to protect Tamil civilians, thus averting a bigger disaster. A curfew was finally imposed and the security forces dispersed the gangs but no arrests were made. [3]
Although the government and some media reports suggested that the violence was a spontaneous reaction to the bomb blast, a team of Colombo-based civil society groups after undertaking a fact-finding mission reported that there had been "an element of pre-planning". [2] Accordingly, journalist D.B.S. Jeyaraj stated: [3]
"this was no instance of angry mobs going berserk, but a case of cold-blooded calculation. It appears that a plan had been formulated to attack Tamils beforehand, and that the explosion was like a green-light signal."
Seven Tamil victims of the riots were identified; however, several charred bodies presumed to be Tamils went unidentified, some Tamil residents reported missing were feared dead and locals suspected that many Tamil corpses were disposed of by their killers. [4] One estimate suggested over 20 Tamil and Muslim civilians were killed [18] and another 19 people. [2] About 70 people, mostly Tamils, were injured and 50 needed hospital treatment. [4]
14 April
On 14 April, following the discovery of the dead body of a Sinhalese youth in Mihindapura who had gone missing the previous day, another bout of anti-Tamil riots erupted on the outskirts of the Trincomalee town. Sinhalese mobs in Mihindapura with the help of the Army went on a rampage, setting fire to about 15 Tamil houses in the village and then burned down over 40 houses in the neighbouring Tamil village of Nadesapuram, 50 Tamil houses in Kanniya and 4-5 houses in Andankulam. The office and other properties of the Trincomalee District Youth Development Aham, a humanitarian NGO, was burned down. Nadeswarar Hindu temple was also burned down and a 60-year-old Tamil woman Somasuntharam Maheswary was dragged out of the temple and hacked to death. Also among the killed were an Indian national and astrologer Venkadasamy Venkatraman (30); and an employee of the Trincomalee district secretariat Thannimalai Namasivayalingam (28). Tamil villagers in affected and surrounding areas fled their homes, seeking refuge in schools and places of worship. By 20 April, the violence had displaced 2673 persons (723 families) according to an official estimate. [11] [4] Other estimates put the figure at over 3000. Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation made an urgent appeal for aid for total of 3306 internally displaced persons. [19]
Pro-rebel TamilNet reported statements from Tamil families sheltered in the school Varothiayanagar Bharathi Vidiyalam who recounted: [20]
"Our houses were burnt, properties were destroyed and we were attacked by thugs with knives and clubs while the State armed forces and police looked on. No one came to our rescue. We fled from our houses and sought refuge elsewhere to save our lives."
