Lest We Forget

Lest we forget – Massacres of Tamils 1956 ­2002
My husband could not bear to see his only son being brutally tortured. He sprang
up and protested and I too raised cries. Thereupon, one of them armed with wooden
pestle dealt a blow on the chest of my husband he fell down unconscious; he fell
down like an uprooted tree. I rushed to my husband and lifted his head. Another
person struck me on my head with a weapon. I remember blood gushing from my
head before I fell unconscious.
Those who survived the attack fled to Thirukovil carrying the injured. They carried
nothing with them and ran with the clothes on their back. Some of them had had no
meal from the previous day.
Later when I opened my eyes, I found myself on a hospital bed, along with several
others from my village. It was late in the afternoon, around 4 p.m. I tried to
recollect what had happened but could not. Anxious relatives came to see me and I
asked for my family members. I was told that a number of people were killed by the
home guards and the Muslims and our houses were set on fire with petrol and
kerosene. All the people had fled from the village, but some were preparing to go
back to Xavierpuram to perform the last rites for the dead whose mortal remains
were lying scattered.
Something urged me to return with the crowd to Xavierpuram. Despite my weak
condition, I left the hospital ward, traced my husband who was equally in pain, and
together with about 20 men, traveled in a tractor belonging to one member of our
tribe. I was petrified when I saw my son's body lying near the channel with bullet
wounds. There were two other bodies beside his strewn around.
The eerie calm of the destroyed village with the burnt houses sent terror through
me. The charred remains of the houses reminded me of ghosts. We made a quick
return to Thirukovil.”
Massana, another victim of the attack is an ageing woman of the Kurawar tribe
living in Xavierpuram. A grandmother, she said that she knew most of the attackers.
Some of them were paddy cultivators in the area around where she lived. They not
only killed, maimed and injured people, but also destroyed the church, the school
and homes of a peaceful community, many of whose members worked on the paddy
fields of the Muslims.
After homes were lost, and lives brutally taken, some survivors could not bear to
live with what they had seen or with what they had lost and later committed suicide.
58. Siththandy massacre ­ 20, 27.07.1990
Siththandy village is situated 8 Kms
north of the Batticaloa town. The village
has an ancient and famous Hindu
temple.
On 20.07.1990, Sri Lankan military
rounded up the village and took all the
people into this temple. Eight of the
Report by NESOHR,
Information Collected by SNE
47