| Veeramunai massacres | |
|---|---|
  Veeramunai Veeramunai (Sri Lanka) | |
| Location | Veeramunai, Ampara District, Sri Lanka |
| Date | June 20 – August 15, 1990 |
Attack type | Massacre |
| Weapons | Guns, knives. |
| Deaths | 250+ Tamil civilians |
| Perpetrators | Sri Lankan security forces, Muslim home guards |
The Veeramunai massacres refers to the mass killing and disappearances of over 250 Tamil civilians by Sri Lankan security forces and Muslim home guards in 1990. [1] [2]
Veeramunai is a rural village in the Ampara District situated within the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. Most of the 4000 residents were Sri Lankan Tamils and were farmers. On 15 April 1954, a Muslim mob from neighbouring Sammanthurai (population size ~ 40,000) burned down nearly every house in Veeramunai after a Muslim magistrate was stabbed trying to settle a drunken quarrel between two Tamil men in Veeramunai. Following this incident about 75% of the displaced villagers left Veeramunai, and set up satellite settlements like Malwattai, Veerachcholai, and 4th and 19th colonies away from Sammanthurai. Veeramunai land holdings were eventually sold to the residents of Sammanthurai at a low price thus the village reduced in size and population considerably, turning Veeramunai into a Tamil enclave. [1] [3] Following this, it has been claimed that some Muslims harbored a desire to repeat what had happened in 1954 and wipe out the village of Veeramunai completely. [1]
Peace talks between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Government of Sri Lanka, which began in 1989 broke down ending a 13-month ceasefire.
Following calls by Muslim leaders for protection, the government created Muslim home guard units. However, local rivalries and LTTE attacks led to these units committing or participating in attacks on Tamil civilians.[ citation needed ]
According to North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESOHR), on June 10, 1990, Muslim groups with the help of the security forces massacred 37 Tamil civilians in Sammanthurai. [4]
On June 11, the LTTE massacred over 600 Sinhalese and Muslim police officers who had surrendered to them in the Eastern Province. [5]
Following the outbreak of Eelam War II on June 11, Tamils were attacked and chased away from Ampara Town and the interior villages around the Gal Oya scheme. [6] [1]
The following is a breakdown of events by UTHR-J and NESOHR:
On June 18, 13 Tamil civilians were abducted by the army from the roads of Veeramunai and made to disappear. [1]
On June 20, the Sri Lanka Army gathered the residents of Veeramunai village and instructed them to assemble at the Veeramunai Pillaiyar temple. Those who stayed at home were shot and killed. Later that day, the military descended upon the temple in large numbers. Over 1,000 villagers had gathered at the temple following the army's orders. The military singled out every male over the age of 15 among them. 69 young men, all of them civilians, were detained right before their families' eyes. The abducted men were transported to the Sammanthurai Marjan Muslim School, where they endured torture. 50 of them lost their lives, and their bodies were disposed of in a nearby forest. [4]
On June 29, the army took a further 56 boys from the Veeramunai temple with the assistance of Muslim home guards. All of the boys subsequently disappeared. [1] In the aftermath of these two incidents, those displaced from the temple sought refuge at the Karaitivu Maha Vidyalayam School. [4]
On July 3, the military once again rounded up individuals from this school, this time taking 11 young men, who also disappeared. [4]
On July 4, the military once again rounded up individuals from the refugee camp. [1]
On July 5, a further 13 men were abducted by the military, subjected to torture, and subsequently killed, their bodies set ablaze with tires. Attempts by people to locate and inquire about the fate of the arrested individuals were met with military attacks. Consequently, these displaced individuals moved once again, seeking refuge at a camp near Veeramunai. [4]
On July 8, an army officer delivered a speech to the refugees telling them that they had finished off the JVP with burning tires, and that they would do it again. He also said that there were no longer any males left living between the ages of 15–50 in Mankulam and another village. He then proceeded to pick up young boys from the camp, most of them sickly and scrawny looking. [1]
On July 10, the military abducted another 15 young men from the refugee camp. These men were transported to a military camp, where they faced torture, followed by execution, with their bodies burned afterwards. [4]
On July 11, 13 women visited Savalakkadai to search for their disappeared children. The army stationed there took the women and they also disappeared. [1]
On July 16, eight women who had ventured from the refugee camp to check on their homes were arrested at the Malwattai checkpoint. They were gang raped by more than 30 Sri Lanka Army soldiers after which they were killed and their bodies set on fire. [4]
On July 26, the military once again arrested 32 young men, including 23 schoolchildren. All of them disappeared. [4]
On July 29, eight school teachers who were traveling with their families from the Veeramunai refugee camp were also arrested, and they too disappeared. [4]
On August 1, 18 civilians, including four women and a baby, were arrested by the military and home guards while passing through the Savalakkadai road. They were killed by sharp weapons, and their bodies were disposed of inside the Savalakkadai temple and set ablaze. [4]
On August 12, following the knifing and serious injuring of two Muslim farmers by the LTTE in Veerachcholai, Muslim anger was stirred. Muslim home guards entered the Veeramunai refugee camp and launched an attack on its residents with knives and guns. This resulted in the deaths of at least ten civilians, including the temple manager Thambimuthu Sinnathurai and two infants. One child's corpse was cut into three pieces. Many others were injured in this attack. Those injured were initially denied treatment at the Sammanthurai hospital by a Muslim crowd and a child subsequently died due to it being refused water. The injured eventually had to be transported to the Ampara hospital. However, the military arrived at the hospital and abducted three of the seven victims who were admitted. In particular, one Muslim soldier called Lateef terrorised the Tamil patients and caused several to disappear. He disconnect the saline drip to one injured boy, Kanthakuddy (17), who subsequently died. [1] The remaining four patients managed to escape back to Veeramunai. [4]
Throughout these events, approximately 600 houses in Veeramunai were set ablaze, and an additional 1,352 houses in neighboring villages, including Malwattai, Mallihaithivu, Newtown, Ganapathipuram, Valaththapiddy, and Sammanthurai, were also set on fire. [4]
Between June 20, 1990, and August 15, 1990, over 250 people from Veeramunai and nearby villages were killed or disappeared, and more than 2,000 houses were burnt. [1] [4]
Tamils were expelled en masse from southern Ampara District and the well watered fertile areas of its west. [2] In particular, Muslim home guards violently expelled Tamils from Veeramunai and Sorikalmumai further outwards to the coast. [6]
Between June and October 1990, 3000 Tamil civilians had been killed or disappeared in Ampara District alone. [7]
In October 1990, the LTTE expelled Muslims from the Northern province, in what Yogi, the LTTE's political spokesman claimed was carried out in retaliation for atrocities committed against Tamils in the Eastern Province by Muslims, who were seen by the LTTE as collaborators with the Sri Lanka Army. [8]
The Eastern University massacre was the arrest and subsequent mass murder of 158 minority Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who had taken refuge in the Eastern University campus close to the city Batticaloa on September 5, 1990. A witness identified Sri Lankan Army personnel as the perpetrators. The event is part of what is known amongst Sri Lankan Tamils as Black September, a series of civilian massacres. The Sri Lankan government eventually established a presidential commission of inquiry. The inquiry found evidence of illegal abductions and mass murder. It also named the responsible parties, but there is currently no evidence of any judicial follow up to the inquiry.
The Chencholai bombing took place on August 14, 2006 when the Sri Lankan Air Force bombed what it said was a rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) training camp, killing 61 girls aged 16 to 18. The LTTE, UNICEF, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and UTHR all said those in the compound were not LTTE cadres.
The Kent and Dollar Farm massacres were the first massacres of Sinhalese civilians carried out by the LTTE during the Sri Lankan Civil War. The massacres took place on 30 November 1984, in two tiny farming villages in the Mullaitivu district in north-eastern Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government labeled this as an attack on civilians by the LTTE.
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 Kalmunai massacre refers to a series of mass killings that occurred in June 1990 in Kalmunai, a municipality within the Ampara District of Sri Lanka's Eastern Province. The massacre of Tamil civilians was allegedly carried out by the Sri Lankan Army in retaliation for an earlier massacre of Sri Lankan police officers. The University Teachers for Human Rights, a human rights organization, put the number of dead in the second massacre at 250, while a local Member of Parliament claimed that at least 160 people were killed.
The Palliyagodella massacre was carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) against the mostly Muslim population of the Palliyagodella village located on border region of the northern part of Sri Lanka that were controlled by the Tigers at the time. This was the largest massacre of Muslim civilians by the LTTE to date. Village eyewitnesses claim that some 285 men, women and children, around a third of the population, were killed by a 1,000 strong force of the Tamil Tigers; however, the Sri Lankan government states that the LTTE massacred 166 to 171. All but 40 of the victims of the Palliyathidal massacre were Muslim; the rest were Sinhalese.
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 II is the name given to the second phase of armed conflict between Sri Lankan military and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The war started after the failure of peace talks between the Premadasa government and the LTTE. This phase of the war was initiated by the LTTE who massacred almost 600 Sinhalese and Muslim police personnel after they were ordered by the Premadasa government to surrender to the LTTE. The truce was broken on June 10, 1990, when the LTTE in October expelled all the 28,000 Muslims residing in Jaffna.
The Kattankudy Mosque Massacre was the killing of over 147 Muslim men and boys on 3 August, 1990. Around 30 armed Tamil militants raided two mosques in Kattankudy where over 300 people were prostrating in Isha prayers. The Sri Lankan government, survivors, and observers accuse the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of committing the crime. The LTTE denied involvement and never retracted the denial.
Malwattai is a rural village in the Ampara District situated within the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. Most of the residents are minority Sri Lankan Tamils and are farmers. It was founded in 1954 as village in the jungle by refugees fleeing the burning and destruction of once larger Sri Lankan Tamil village of Veeramunai by some members of Muslim dominant Sammanthurai. Life was affected by the insurgency and counter insurgency operations during the Sri Lankan civil war. Members of the village were also present within the Hindu temple at Veeramunai as refugees when it was attacked by Home Guards from Sammanthurai on August 12, 1990 resulting in the death of 55 civilians. Subsequently the village was resettled by returning refugees.
Veeramunai is a rural village in the Ampara District situated within the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. Most of the residents are minority Sri Lankan Tamils and are farmers. According to local chronicles, Veeramunai was founded by early Mukkuva settlers in a medieval feudal division called Nadukadu during the pre colonial period. Feudal lords known as Vanniar resident in the village controlled large swaths of farm land around the village and the region. These farm holdings led to considerable conflicts with residents of a demographically larger nearby town of Sammanthurai. Most residents of Sammathurai were exclusively members of the Sri Lankan Muslim minority. In 1954, a mob from Sammanthurai burned down Veeramunai after a local conflict. About 75% of the villagers left Veeramunai as refugees and setup satellite settlements like Malwattai, Kanapathipuram and Veerachcholai away from Sammanthurai. Veeramunai land holdings were eventually sold to the residents of Sammanthurai thus the village reduced in size and population considerably. During the 1990s life was affected by the insurgency and counter insurgency operations during the Sri Lankan civil war. Members of the village were also present within the Hindu temple at Veeramunai as refugees when it was attacked by Home Guards from Sammanthurai on August 12, 1990 resulting in the death of 55 civilians. Subsequently the village was resettled by returning refugees.
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.
The Manal Aru massacres of 1984 refers to a series of massacres of Sri Lankan Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan military across numerous traditional Tamil villages in the Manal Aru region which spans across the Mullaitivu and Trincomalee districts. The motive behind the massacres was to drive out the local Tamil population from their villages, in order to replace them with thousands of Sinhala settlers.
Veerachcholai is a rural village in the Ampara District within the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. Most residents are Sri Lankan Tamilians, a minority and are farmers.
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.
