Lest We Forget

Lest we forget – Massacres of Tamils 1956 ­2002
52. Paddithidal massacre ­ 26.04.1987
Paddithidal is a Tamil village and it is
situated 10 Kms from Mutur in
Trincomalee. The village is in the
Mallikaithivu Assistant Government
Agent division. From the beginning of
1987 there were military attacks in the
area.
On 26.04.1987, there were clashes
between the Sri Lankan military and the LTTE near the Mallikaithivu junction.
Three Sri Lankan military personnel were killed in this clash. Among these killed
were Kanifa, a Muslim home guard. To take revenge for this the military entered
the Paddithidal village and searched. People had already left the village suspecting
that the military will attack the civilians if they face defeat at the hands of the
LTTE. One Christian family of 16 members was praying as they continued to stay
in the village.
The military opened fire at those praying. They burnt the people still struggling
after the shooting. All 16 members of the family were killed. Three babies and
several children were among those killed. One family member, Konan Ulaganatan
escaped death.
“My name is Ulaganathan. I was born and I grew up in
Paddiththidal. On Sunday 24 th of April 1987, I went to
church on my own. My family did not accompany me.
On the way back I saw that the families in the village
were running and hiding. I tried to see if my family was
amongst them. Thinking that perhaps my family had
gone in another direction to hide, I decided that I would
go home and check anyway. I heard bomb blasts. I was
very scared of what might have happened.
I ran back to my house. I saw that my house was burning. As I was wondering
where my family could have gone, I reached the front door step and saw that every
single person in my family was dead. My wife, 2 daughters, big brother, his wife,
his 5 kids, my wife's big sister and 3 kids, my mother and my younger sister were all
in there.
In desperation, I tried to kill myself in the fire - but the two people with me –
grabbed me before I could. They took me away to the place in which they were
hiding and kept me there.
I returned the next day and tried to make sense of how they had died. My youngest
daughter looked like she had been eating rice at the time. She was leaning against
the door with a bullet through her head. I was just able to work out that it was my
youngest daughter because it was a very small face.
Report by NESOHR,
Information Collected by SNE
43