Lest We Forget

Lest we forget – Massacres of Tamils 1956 ­2002
In July 1983, the cows in the village were killed and wealth destroyed. In 1984,
when the Thiruvemba pooja in December was happening at Pillayar Temple, the
SLA shot 9 people dead. That same year 300 houses were burnt.
On 4 th of January 1985, the SLA killed the only Engineer along with 7 others. They
also destroyed houses and wealth. One week later on the 10 th of January, they shot
the temple priest along with 9 others.
On 10 th of November 1986, they returned to rape, steal, kill and burn the villagers.
103 Tamils were cut and killed that day.
In 1986, after they had shot 7 men in the village they used tires to burn the bodies.
In 1987, 14 people that were fishing in the pond were shot.
On 9 th of July 1990, once again people left the village unable to bear the atrocities
that were committed on them. Babies were ripped open and thrown callously. Over
40 families were shot; girls were raped, stabbed and ripped open. The witnesses of
this torture left and have not returned till this day.
Soosaimoththu Thambimoothu talks about unbelievable torture on the day his
younger brother Sellathamby Perinbarasa and wife died,
“In 1983, the SLA and the mobs joined together to set alight our houses. They took
all the wealth in our houses away in their vehicles. Around 40 or 45 houses were
burnt. Everyone ran with fear in the direction of the vegetable garden. We also ran
to our vegetable garden at Mungil Malai. The SLA rounded up and took away all
the people that had gathered at Mungil Malai.
My younger brother and his pregnant wife were two of these people taken away.
They took turns to rape my sister in law in front of my brother. They tied up my
younger brother’s hands and legs, cut open his wife's stomach, took out the baby
and trampled the baby with their legs. Right at the end, they shot my brother in the
ear. They took his wife's naked body, placed both bodies in a position that looked
like husband was raping the wife and left. A little way away from them,
Yoganathan, his father Arumugam, Jeganatha and Ramayyah were shot dead. One
of their chests was ripped open with a knife and his insides were taken out. The
people that were captured and taken away – don’t know what happened to this
day.”
Kathirvelu Rasammah’s children and husband were destroyed by the SLA. In 1983,
1984 and then in 1990 her children were all shot dead,
“I ran behind the Army when they took my children. They told me to stop else they
would shoot. They said they would have to carry out an investigation and then the
children would return home. We went to the camp a little while after this. They told
us to go home and return back tomorrow.
When we went the next day they did not let us and so we went back again the day
after. They told us, that they had taken our children and left them in the forest and
that we could go and see them there. We did not go immediately because we were
too scared. When we did go a few days later, the forest was sprawled with bodies.
There were arms and legs strewn everywhere. We could not identify whose children
Report by NESOHR,
Information Collected by SNE
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