Kumarapuram massacre

Last updated
Kumarapuram massacre
Kumarapuram village.jpeg
The ruined village houses of the settlement of Kumarapuram. The location of the massacre of civilians
Location Kumarapuram, Trincomalee district, Sri Lanka
DateFebruary 11, 1996 (+6 GMT)
Target Sri Lankan Tamil civilians
Attack type
Firing, Rape
WeaponsGuns
Deaths26
Injured28

Kumarapuram massacre (also known as 1996 Trincomalee massacre or 1996 Killiveddy massacre) refers to the mass murder of 26 Sri Lankan Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan Army soldiers on 11 February 1996. [1] [2] The victims included 13 women and 9 children below the age of 12. Further 28 civilians were severely injured as well. The event took place in a village called Kumarapuram, located in the eastern district of Trincomalee. It was a notable mass murder of civilians since the resumption of armed conflict between rebel forces and Sri Lankan armed forces since April 1995 during the Sri Lankan civil war. The then-government arrested a number of soldiers and home guards who allegedly carried out the massacre. A court case was started on 2004. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] On 27 July 2016, the court acquitted six former Army Corporals who were accused of the massacre after they were found not guilty. [8] [9]

Contents

Background information

After the 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom, full scale civil war erupted between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil rebel groups. [10] During the course of the civil war there were number of massacres of civilians and other human rights abuses attributed to both the government and its allied groups, as well as the various rebel groups.

The area around Kumarapuram had become target of increasing harassment from the Sri Lankan military, with the civilians being subjected to forced labor and verbal and physical abuse. In the days leading up to the massacre, villagers heard soldiers firing guns in the air and issuing threats, often in an intoxicated state. [1] Due to the forced labor, Kumarapuram villagers had come to know many of the soldiers from the nearby camps and check points by their names. [11]

Massacre

The massacre took place in the village called Kumarapuram located in the Trincomalee district on February 11, 1996. According to several survivors interviewed by Amnesty International, 26 civilians, including 13 women and seven children below the age of 12, were killed by soldiers from the 58th mile post and Dehiwatte army camps, accompanied by Home Guards from Dehiwatte. Home guards were local civilians drafted as paramilitary by the government of Sri Lanka. [3]

The killings were in apparent reprisal for the killings by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of two soldiers near a location called the 58th mile post on February 11, 1996 about half an hour earlier. According to one witness, a group of soldiers, some of whom were drunk, gathered at Dehiwatte junction and then proceeded towards Kumarapuram, shouting "death to the Tamils". [4] The villagers of Kumarapuram had taken refuge inside their houses. The soldiers broke open the shutters and aimed their guns at the people hiding inside. One woman recounted how she pleaded with them not to shoot but to no avail. In her house, seven people were killed, including a six-year-old child. [3]

Among the villagers who survived the massacre were 28 individuals who were severely injured and they stated that the soldiers had attacked them with axes. Children as young as 3 and 6 years of age had axe injuries on their face. [12] Arasaratham Nagarasa, one of the survivors of the massacre, later recounted the incidents that took place after he had taken refuge in his house with 18 other villagers:

We continued to hear gun-shots pelting down like rain, and so we were all terrified to step outside. Through a crack in the wall we saw four army personnel come towards our house. When they got to our house, they shouted from outside "para demalu [a Sinhala pejorative for Tamils implying 'inferior alien'], eliyata wareng!" (Tamils, get out here now!) [...] A bullet went through my left eye and out the right. My neighbours tried to take me to the nearby dispensary, but, while going, we heard shooting again, so we ran into another nearby house. There I heard that my wife and son had been shot, but, as I was in and out of consciousness at the time, I didn’t fully understand what they were telling me. [11]

Chokkalingam Stephen, a 51-year-old villager whose daughter was killed in the massacre, stated that on the following morning the local soldiers had told him, "two of our boys were killed, so we too went killing". According to many local observers and other reliable testimonies from several sources, a senior army officer had instigated the massacre, who allegedly ordered, "turn the place into powder". [12]

Rapes and murder

Among the victims was 15-year old Arumathurai Thanaluxmi. [1] She was dragged from a boutique in the village and taken to the milk collection centre where she was gang-raped by the soldiers before being shot dead. Anthony Joseph, a 10-year-old boy, [12] who tried to stop the soldiers from dragging her away, was shot between his legs. [3] There were reports of one more rape and murder as well. In total two girls were raped and murdered as part of the massacre. [13]

Investigation and trial

In March 1996, the Muttur Magistrate Court called on the witnesses from Kumarapuram to identify the perpetrators and 24 witnesses were able to identify 8 soldiers from the 58th Mile Post and Dehiwatta army camps and the Killiveddy check point from a group of 95 soldiers in the three-day long identification parade of over 500 soldiers. The accused were arrested and were promptly released. On 4 November 1998, the Muttur Magistrate committed the case for the Trincomalee High Court, with 120 charges listed against each of eight soldiers. On 3 June 2002, after nearly four years of taking no action to indict the accused, the Attorney General’s department indicted the six accused soldiers on 101 charges each: Corporals SG Nishantha, NM Ajith Sisira Kumara, MP Kapila Darshana, HM Abeysinghe, PP Upasena and HM Abeyratne. Two of the eight accused had died while out on bail. The Attorney General’s department didn't indict any commanding officer in the area who had allegedly directed the massacre, indicating a lack of will to prosecute higher-ranked military personnel. [1]

On 14 June 2005, when the case was taken up for inquiry, the State Counsel Mr. S. Halimdeen told the Trincomalee High Court Judge Mr. Anton Balasingham that all material evidence, including weapons used in the massacre, had been destroyed in 2004 when the office of the Government Analyst in Colombo was gutted by fire. [14] Survivors and witnesses were also subjected to continuous intimidation and harassment from local military personnel, such as when the villagers tried to commemorate the massacre in 2006. [1] After being repeatedly postponed for four years, in October 2006 the Court of Appeal ordered the case to be transferred from the Trincomalee High Court to the Sinhalese-dominated Anuradhapura High Court at the request of the accused (apparently to avoid a Tamil judge in Trincomalee), without giving an opportunity for the counsel of victims to object. [2]

After being dragged on for 20 years, the jury trial began on 27 June 2016. 120 witnesses were notified and 40 of them gave evidence. [15] On 27 July 2016, an all-Sinhalese jury of the Anuradhapura High Court acquitted the six accused former soldiers of all 606 charges against them. Following the acquittal, the victims' families appealed to the President to direct the Attorney General to appeal against the judgement and re-try the accused. In the appeal submitted to the Court of Appeal against the Anuradhapura High Court's decision, the Attorney General stated:

While the plaintiff has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the Defendants were guilty of the accusations against them, the Anuradhapura High Court Jury verdict, exonerating them of all wrongdoing and releasing them, is complete injustice to the victims. [11]

Notes

According to University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR), there was another notable massacre in the same vicinity in 1985 and it is known as the Killiveddy massacre. Sometimes the Kumamarapuram massacre of 1996 is also referred to as Killiveddy massacre.

See also

Related Research Articles

2006 Trincomalee massacre of students or "Trinco 5" was the murder of five Tamil schoolboys by the Special Task Force (STF) in Trincomalee town on 2 January 2006. The case has received considerable international attention and is regarded as an emblematic case of impunity since no one has been held accountable for the crimes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kumudini boat massacre</span>

The Kumudini or Kumuthini boat massacre happened on 15 May 1985, when at least 23 minority Sri Lankan Tamil adults and children on a ferry boat named Kumudini sailing from the island of Delft to the island of Nainathivu were killed by Sri Lankan Navy personnel.

The Pottuvil Massacre was the killing of 10 Muslim labourers who had gone to repair the bund of Rattal Tank in Pottuvil in the southern part of the Ampara District on 17 September 2006. The victims were all men aged between 18–35 whose bodies were found hacked to death the next morning. The massacre was widely believed to have been carried out by the Special Task Force (STF).

The Mylanthanai massacre happened on August 9, 1992 when 35 minority Sri Lankan Tamils, including 14 children, at Mylanthanai in Batticaloa District in Sri Lanka, were killed.

Thampalakamam massacre happened on 1 February 1998 when eight Sri Lankan Tamil civilians were taken to the nearby police station and shot dead by Sri Lankan Police and Sinhalese home guards in Thampalakamam, Trincomalee District. The victims include two brothers aged 13 and 17.

The 2006 Trincomalee Massacre of NGO Workers, also known as the Muttur Massacre, took place on 4 or 5 August 2006, when 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger were shot at close range in the city of Muttur, Sri Lanka, close to Trincomalee. The victims included sixteen minority Sri Lankan Tamils and one Sri Lankan Muslim.

Mirusuvil massacre refers to the massacre and subsequent mass burial of eight Sri Lankan Tamil civilians on 20 December 2000.

Eelam War I is the name given to the initial phase of the armed conflict between the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE.

Eelam War III is the name given to the third phase of armed conflict between the Sri Lankan military and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A. Thangathurai</span> 20th-century Sri Lankan Tamil politician and lawyer

Arunasalam Thangathurai was a Sri Lankan Tamil lawyer, politician and Member of Parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kumarapuram (Sri Lanka)</span>

Kumarapuram is a small village in Trincomalee district in Sri Lanka. The village was founded in 1981 by Kumarathurai, after whom it is named. It was the scene of the Kumarapuram massacre in 1996.

Kumarathurai Arunasalam was the founder of Kumarapuram, a small village in Trincomalee District of Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province. He is younger brother of late Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Member of Parliament for Trincomalee District, A. Thangathurai.

Arumathurai Thanaluxmi was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil girl aged 15 who was gang-raped and killed by the Sri Lankan Army during the Kumarapuram massacre in Trincomalee on 11 February 1996, and who became a cause célèbre of the Sri Lankan civil war because of this.

Weli Oya,(Sinhala: වැලිඔය, romanized: Weli Oya) is a Sinhalese colony area in Mullaithivu District, Sri Lanka formerly known as Manal Aru. Weli Oya has been affected by the Sri Lankan civil war and government Sinhala colonization programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1985 Trincomalee massacres</span> Attacks on Tamil civilians by Sri Lankan military and home guards

The 1985 Trincomalee massacres refers to a series of mass murder of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan military and Sinhalese home guards in Trincomalee District, Sri Lanka. In a succession of events that spanned over two months, hundreds of Tamil civilians were massacred and thousands were driven out by the Sri Lankan military and Sinhalese mobs in order to colonize the area. Almost every Tamil settlement in the district was destroyed during this well-orchestrated campaign to drive out the local Tamil population. Several Tamil women were also raped. In September 1985, the entire Tamil population of Trincomalee town was displaced to forests and refugee camps in an attack that wiped out the town, including the destruction of 12 temples and a mosque. Since August 16, over 50,000 Tamils who were forced to flee the town ended up in refugee camps in the Jaffna and Batticaloa districts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1987 Eastern Province massacres</span> Massacres of Sinhalese in the Eastern Province by Tamil militant groups

The 1987 Eastern Province massacres were a series of massacres of the Sinhalese population in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka by Tamil mobs and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the Sri Lankan Civil War. Though they began spontaneously, they became more organized, with the LTTE leading the violence. Over 200 Sinhalese were killed by mob and militant violence, and over 20,000 fled the Eastern Province. The violence has been described as having had the appearance of a pogrom, with the objective of removing Sinhalese from the Eastern Province.

Sexual violence against Tamils in Sri Lanka has occurred repeatedly during the island's long ethnic conflict. The first instances of rape of Tamil women by Sinhalese mobs were documented during the 1958 anti-Tamil pogrom. This continued in the 1960s with the deployment of the Sri Lankan Army in Jaffna, who were reported to have molested and occasionally raped Tamil women.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Impunity Reigns in Sri Lanka: The Kumarapuram Massacre and Acquittals" (PDF). People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL). March 20, 2017. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
  2. 1 2 "Sri Lanka: President urged to retry acquitted suspects in Tamil massacre". Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS). July 30, 2016. Retrieved 2023-05-15.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Sri Lanka: Wavering commitment to human rights". Amnesty International. August 13, 1996.
  4. 1 2 "Report on Kumarapuram massacre". Archived from the original on 2006-10-04.
  5. ↑ "probe Trincomalee massacre".
  6. ↑ "HRW Report".
  7. ↑ "Kumarapuram village".
  8. ↑ "Six army officers acquitted over Kumarapuram massacre". Ada Derana. 27 July 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  9. ↑ "Court acquits former Sri Lankan army officers accused of Kumarapuram massacre". colombopage. 27 July 2016. Archived from the original on 30 July 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  10. ↑ "Tamil Alienation". Russell R. Ross. Retrieved 2008-05-08.
  11. 1 2 3 ""His name is Kamaleswaran"". Groundviews. 2017-02-11. Retrieved 2023-05-15.
  12. 1 2 3 "Trincomalee District in February 1996: Focusing on the Killiveddy Massacre". UTHRJ. March 2, 1996. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  13. ↑ Improving Civilian Protection in Sri Lanka. Human Rights Watch. September 2006. HRW2006.
  14. ↑ "Kumarapuram massacre case exhibits destroyed in fire". TamilNet. June 14, 2005. Retrieved 2023-05-15.
  15. ↑ "Justice undone - Kumarapuram massacre case". Center for Human Rights and Development (CHRD) Sri Lanka. Retrieved 2023-05-15.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.