Lest We Forget

Lest we forget – Massacres of Tamils 1956 ­2002
not go there in the evening. The relatives persisted with their complaints to the
Human Rights Commission and the Police.
Due to the efforts of the relatives 45 days after the four people went missing,
the relatives were called by the military chiefs of the 512 Brigadiers Divisions
for an inquiry. Mrs. Arumuganathan, Puvaneswari and Kodeeswaran went to
the inquiry. The six soldiers who were supposedly involved in the
disappearance were called and investigated. Then it was revealed that none of
the four missing people are alive.
The soldiers agreed to show the location of the incident and the graves where
the bodies lay buried. The bodies were buried under a bridge in
Nayanmarkaddu road, 100 metres from the checkpoint where the four people
went missing. Postmortem revealed that Krishnathi was raped before she was
murdered.
The two families took a court case about the deaths of their relatives. Following
inquiries six soldiers were arrested and all six confessed to the murders. One of
the six who confessed, Lance Corporal Somaratna Rajapakse, in addition to
giving evidence of the murders of Krishanthi and the other three, also
announced in the courts that he can show mass graves near Chemmani where
300 to 400 bodies were buried on orders from their superiors. This
announcement revealed that many of those who disappeared in Jaffna are buried
in these mass graves.
Three of the accused were given death sentence and the other three were given
20 years imprisonment.
102. Vavunikulam massacre ­ 26­09­1996, 15­08­1997
Vavunikulam village is located in the
Mullaithivu district. The village takes
the name of the large water reservoir in
the village.
Displaced people from other districts
like Jaffna and Kilinochchi were living
there in temporary shelters
experiencing great hardship. On
26.09.1996, Sri Lankan Air Force bombed this village killing four civilians and
wounding 12.
In 1997, the Sri Lankan military was on a military operation from their
Omanthai camp, codenamed “Jeyasikkuru”, to take over the A9 route. The
bombing and shelling were hitting the civilians. Civilians had taken refuge in
schools, churches and temples.
On 15.08.1997 at 9.00am, the Vavunikulam villagers took refuge in a church in
their village as the military went on an onslaught. Two bombs were dropped on
this church by Sri Lankan Air Force Kfirs.
Report by NESOHR,
Information Collected by SNE
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