Prawn farm massacre

Last updated
Prawn farm massacre
LocationSriLanka.png
Location of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka relief location map.jpg
Red pog.svg
Location Kokkadichcholai, Sri Lanka
Coordinates 7°37′N81°43′E / 7.617°N 81.717°E / 7.617; 81.717
DateJanuary 27, 1987 (+6 GMT)
Target Sri Lankan Tamil village residents
Attack type
Armed massacre
WeaponsAutomatics rifles, Knives, axes
Deaths83
Perpetrators Special Task Force

The Prawn farm massacre, also known as the 1987 Kokkadichcholai massacre, took place on January 27, 1987 in the village of Kokkadichcholai, Sri Lanka. At least 83 Tamil civilians were killed. [1] [2] The Special Task Force, an elite special forces unit of the Sri Lanka Police specializing in counter-terrorist and counter-insurgency operations, was accused of having perpetrated the massacre. [2] [3] [4] Asian Agricultural Products Limited (AAPL), the Hong Kong based part-owner of the farm filed for arbitration by ICSID, an arm of the World Bank, against the government of Sri Lanka; AAPL prevailed in the arbitration, eventually received payment and families of the victims were paid some monetary compensation. [5]

Contents

Background

Serendib Seafoods Limited was a shrimp farming joint venture established in Sri Lanka about half owned by Sri Lankans. The remainder was held by AAPL, owned by an American, David Milton, as well as other American and European individuals. Serendib's farm was located on the East Coast of Sri Lanka near Batticaloa and its hatchery was in Negombo, near Colombo. As part of the ongoing civil war in Sri Lanka, Serendib's farm, employing a large number of local workers, was attacked and destroyed. [6] One of the prominent local partners was Sam Tambimuttu, a lawyer who became a Member of Parliament (MP) in 1989.

At the time of the attack it was assumed that Tamil militant groups (mainly LTTE, EPRLF, and EROS), were using the farm as a base for their activities. However, when the farm was raided by the Special Task Force (STF), any militants had fled the site. Only farm workers and local civilians who sought refuge remained. [4]

Attack

Relatives of the victims said that on January 27, 1987 a number of helicopters circled the area. The STF entered the village from Vellaveli, Kondavedduvan, Kaluvanchikudi and Kallandy camps in trucks. At a nearby junction, a vehicle was parked and some STF officers exited the vehicle and walked into the prawn farm. The STF gathered up the farm employees, checked their identity cards and herded them onto a semi-trailer; they were taken to a road junction and shot dead. Seven of the victims were boys aged 12 to 14. Forty non-employees who had sought refuge in the farm were also shot and killed. The bodies were later burnt on piles of old tires obtained by the security forces from the town's bus depot. [7]

The relatives of the victims alleged that STF personnel invaded a house near the farm, warning the residents not to speak about the massacre or report it to anyone. [2] [8]

Reaction

The government denied the massacre at the farm but the Managing Director of Serendib Seafoods Limited, Victor Santhiapillai, who was a former Executive Director of the International Trade Centre (a United Nations body), together with a consultant to the company, Bruce Cyr (an American national) rebutted the government's denial and confirmed that the massacre did in fact take place. They also contradicted the government's claim that those killed were either terrorists or that they died in the crossfire. Rejecting the government Media Centre's claim Santhiapillai said, "I totally reject the Media Centre's charge that the 22 Serendib Seafoods staff members (plus 12 still missing) who were shot by the STF were terrorists. The Centre must find some other more intelligent and plausible ways of handling such incidents." [7]

AAPL, as a Hong Kong company, was covered by the Sri Lanka-United Kingdom Bilateral Investment Treaty and filed for arbitration by ICSID, an arm of the World Bank, with the aim of providing compensation to the families of the murdered employees as well as reimbursement to its investors. Three arbitrators—from Egypt, France and Ghana—were selected. AAPL was represented by the retired General Counsel of the World Bank, Dr. Heribert Golsong from Germany, and prevailed in the arbitration by a 2 to 1 vote. AAPL was awarded substantial compensation but the government of Sri Lanka did not make payment until one of AAPL's British shareholders, Richard Lund, urged the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office to use its influence to induce compensation due, which was then made promptly.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Special Task Force (Sri Lanka)</span> Military unit

The Special Task Force (STF) (Sinhala: විශේෂ කාර්ය බලකාය Visesha Karya Balakaya; Tamil: சிறப்பு அதிரடிப் படை) is an elite police tactical unit of the Sri Lanka Police specialising in clandestine and covert operations, combat and patrolling in urban areas, combat search and rescue, counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations, crowd control, executive protection, forward observer, hostage rescue, indirect fire, irregular warfare, jungle and mountain warfare, parachuting, psychological warfare, search and rescue people who are in distress or imminent danger from disaster. serving high-risk arrest and search warrants, special reconnaissance, support military operations, tactical emergency medical, tracking, and unconventional tactics. It was formed in 1983 not as a military force, but rather as a highly specialised armed police unit.

The 1990 Batticaloa massacre, also known as the Sathurukondan massacre, was a massacre of at least 184 minority Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, including infants, from three villages in the Batticaloa District by the Sri Lankan Army on September 9, 1990. Although the government instituted two investigations, no one was ever charged.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Massacre at Thandikulam</span>

The Massacre at Thandikulam is a disputed event which occurred during Sri Lankan Civil War. It took place on 19 November 2006 when suspected LTTE carders exploded an Improvised explosive device targeting a military truck killing five Sri Lanka Army soldiers. Five students of the Thandikulam Agriculture Farm School were also killed in either the explosion or the subsequent gunfight that followed. As of June 2007, investigations are ongoing to ascertain the cause of their deaths.

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 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1991 Kokkadichcholai massacre</span> 1991 mass killing of Sri Lankan Tamils by the Sri Lankan military

On June 12, 1991, 152 minority Sri Lankan Tamil civilians were massacred by members of the Sri Lankan military in the village Kokkadichcholai near the eastern province town of Batticaloa. The Sri Lankan government instituted a presidential commission to investigate the massacre. The commission found the commanding officer negligent in controlling his troops and recommended that he be removed from office, and identified nineteen other members of the Sri Lankan military to be responsible for mass murder. In a military tribunal that followed in the presidential commission in the capital city of Colombo, all nineteen soldiers were acquitted.

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.

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

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eelam War II</span> Armed conflict between Sri Lankan military and 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aranthalawa massacre</span> 1987 Buddhist monk massacre

The Aranthalawa massacre was the massacre of 33 Buddhist monks, most of them young novice monks, and four civilians by cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam organization on June 2, 1987, close to the village of Aranthalawa, in the Ampara District of Eastern Sri Lanka. The massacre is among the most notorious and devastating atrocities committed by the LTTE during the history of the Sri Lankan Civil War, and continues to be commemorated 35 years on.

Kokkadichcholai massacre may refer to:

Kokkadichcholai is a village in Batticaloa District within the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka.

Terrorism in Sri Lanka has been a highly destructive phenomenon during the 20th and 21st centuries, especially so during the periods of the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983–2009) and the first (1971) and second JVP insurrections (1987–1989). A common definition of terrorism is the systematic or threatened use of violence to intimidate a population or government for political, religious, or ideological goals. Sri Lanka is a country that has experienced some of the worst known acts of modern terrorism, such as suicide bombings, massacres of civilians and assassination of political and social leaders. Terrorism has posed a significant threat to the society, economy and development of the country. The Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1978 is the legislation that provides the powers to law enforcement officers to deal with issues related to terrorism in Sri Lanka. It was first enacted as a temporary law in 1979 under the presidency of J. R. Jayewardene, and later made permanent in 1982.

<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.

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. ↑ Rajasingam, K. T (2002-03-30). "Sri Lanka: The untold Story, Chapter 33: India shows its hand". Asian Times. Archived from the original on 2002-04-07. Retrieved 2007-07-18.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. 1 2 3 McConnell, D. (2008). "The Tamil people's right to self-determination". Cambridge Review of International Affairs. 21 (1): 59–76. doi:10.1080/09557570701828592.
  3. ↑ Hoole, Rajan (2002-05-14). "Kokkadichcholai massacre and after". University Teachers for Human Rights . Retrieved 2007-07-19.
  4. 1 2 McGowan, William (1992). Only Man Is Vile: The Tragedy of Sri Lanka. Farrar Straus & Giroux. pp. 243–244. ISBN   978-0-374-22652-7.
  5. ↑ Mines (edit), Diana (2002). Everyday Life in South Asia . Indiana University Press. ISBN   978-0-253-21521-5. p. 367
  6. ↑ Gharavi, Hamid (1998-05-01). "Arbitration under Bilateral Investment Treaties, American Arbitration Association's A.D.R.J. and Mealey's Int. Arb. Report, May 1998". Salans. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-10-24. Retrieved 2007-07-19.
  7. 1 2 "Military operations in the East". The Island (Sri Lanka). 1987-02-04.
  8. ↑ Trawick, Margaret (2007). Enemy Lines: Warfare, Childhood and Play in Batticaloa. University of California Press. pp. Chapter 4. ISBN   978-0-520-24516-7 . Retrieved 2007-08-30.
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.