Veeramunai massacre

Veeramunai is a village in the Amparai district. It is a traditional Tamil village. Sammanthurai is the adjacent Muslim village where the Muslim people who were chased away from the coastal areas by the Portuguese colonizers have settled. The Muslims and Tamils have historically lived side by side and together have built a prosperous and peaceful community

On the 20.06.1990, Sri Lankan military rounded up the Veeramunai village and ordered the people to go to the Veeramunai Pillaiyar temple. Everyone who stayed at home without going to the temple were shot dead. Later that day the military arrived at the temple in large numbers. There were more than 1000 people who had gone to the temple on orders from the military. The military selected every male over the age of 15 from the temple. 69 young men, all civilian youths, were arrested in front of their relatives. The arrested men were taken to the Sammanthurai Marjan school where they were tortured. 50 men died and their bodies were taken to the forest nearby and burnt.

The military again took several more people from the temple on 29.06.1990 and all of them have disappeared. s Following these two incidents people displaced from the temple to the Karaithivu Mahavidhyalayam school. On 03.07.1990, the military again rounded up the school and tool 11 young men. They too have disappeared.

Again on 05.07.1990, the military took away a further 13 men. All of them were tortured and killed and their bodies were burnet with tyres.

People who went in search of those who were arrested were attacked by the military. Following this people displaced again to a refuge camp near Veeramunai.

On 10.07.1990, the military arrested another 15 young men from this Veeramunai refuge camp and took them to the military camp. There they were tortured and killed and their bodies were burnt.

On 16.07.1990, eight women who went to check their homes from the refugee camp were arrested at the Malwaththai checkpoint. They were gand raped by more than 30 SLA men and killed. Their bodies were burnt.

On 26.07.1990, the military again arrested 32 young men. 23 of them were school children. All of them have disappeared.

On 29.07.1990, eight school teachers who were traveling with their family were arrested. All of them have disappeared. On 01.08.1990, 18 civilians who were passing through the Savalakkadai road were arrested by the military and the home guards operated by it. Among them were four women and a baby. They were all killed using sharp weapons and their bodies were put inside the Savalakkadai temple and burnt.

On 12.08.1990, Muslim groups that entered the Veeramunai refugee camp began attacking the people. Ten civilians were killed. Many more were injured. Among the dead are, the temple manager Thambimuthu Sinnathurai and two babies. Those injured in the Muslim attack were taken to the Sammanthurai hospital where they were refused treatment. They were then taken to the Amparai hospital. Among the 7 victims who were admitted the military abducted 3 of the victims. The other four escaped back to Veeramunai. In Veeramunai 600 houses were set alight. A further 1352 houses were set alight in the villages of Malvaththai, Mallihaithivu, Newtown, Kanapathypuram, Valaththapiddy, and Sammanthurai.

Between 20.06.1990 and 15.08.1990 more than 200 people were either killed or disappeared from Veeramunal and the adjacent villages. More 2000 houses were burnt. Some accounts of witnesses to these incidents follows. A resident of Ganapathipuram, who was a witness said: “When the army entered the limits of Malwattai, the soldiers shot people at sight, while houses were looted and burnt. We, on hearing gunshot and seeing flames rising from burning homes, fled with our family to save the women and children. We reached the Veeramunai Temple on foot and found people from other villages had arrived at the Temple earlier. Subsequently, people from Amparai, Mallaitivu and Sammanthurai Tamil division joined us.”

A resident from Veeramunai said:

“We found the soldiers were creating a climate of terror. People were picked up from their homes, on the road and their paddy fields. To escape from possible arrest and death, we went to the Temple that was made a refugee camp. I am aware that persons in the employment of the government on their way to work were seized and killed and burnt at a place called Aandhi junction.”

The operation of the army at Veeramunai was described by a mother who said:

“On 20th June 1990 at 2.00 p.m. a number of army vehicles drove into the Veeramunai temple, where thousands of people (Tamils) had taken refuge. The soldiers made an announcement through the loudspeakers requiting all males over the age of 15 to assemble in the temple courtyard. People were agitated since the refugees had left their homes because of fear of the soldiers who had gone on a killing spree there. One by one the men went out into the open space opposite the temple and stood. Women were the most disturbed and stood watching.

The soldiers entered the temple and examined the inner sanctum to ascertain whether anyone was hiding inside. They found no one and began to inspect the youths standing opposite the temple. Of the number surveyed, the soldiers began picking some youths and able bodied children and got them to board a CTB bus they had brought.

The women went before the soldiers and asked them what they were trying to do. One of the officers said they were being taken for questioning and would be released after interrogation. The women pleaded with the soldiers stating that their children were never associated with any form of terrorism and that every one picked up by the army was an innocent youth. The soldiers ignored the tears of the women and started to leave the temple premises with the youths. We fell in front of the vehicles and worshiped the soldiers to leave our boys. The officer who led the raid spoke harshly to us wailing women that he would order his men to shoot every man and women who was obstructing. The women fearing the worst retreated and the army carried away our children. A few returned later battered and bruised, following severe torture.

A youth who escaped from sure death after arrest, made the following statement:

“I was one among those arrested on 20th June from the Veeramunai temple. The soldiers having picked up a number of young men, who were refugees at the Temple, took us to the Sammanthurai AI-Matjan Muslim School where we were beaten severely without any reason. The soldiers first attacked us with gun butts and thereafter kicked us and boxed our faces. The young men picked up at the refugee camp were later paraded before a fair, fat youthful stranger.

When I was produced before him, he said "No" and I was taken aside. I found that the stranger saying "Yes" to most of the young men produced before him that evening. The people to whom he said, “Yes” were taken into another building. Those who were taken aside on the pronouncement of “No” were produced before another officer who made a speech in Tamil. I was in no mood to grasp what he said. The torture I had suffered a little while before had robbed me of my strength and vitality. I could hardly keep standing as I was assaulted by around 15 men simultaneously. The officer told us to get back to the Temple from where we were picked up. The others who were separated from us, we learnt were carried to a place called Malaikadu - a rocky place in shrub jungle - in army trucks and killed. Of the many picked up from the refugee camp at the Temple, only around 20 returned. We learnt that half burnt human bodies were rotting at Malaikadu and the Muslims, unable to bear the stench of decomposing human flesh, carried several tractor loads of paddy husks to cover the rotting bodies and burnt them.”

Madasamy Kathirkamamoorthy

I was living in Veeramunai, a village in Amparai. We were very poor. We had no dad. When I did not go to school, I used to go to Amparai for work. One day on the way to work I heard there was trouble. So I returned home. My mother said that it was not safe for us to stay at home - there are beginning to hit everyone.

My sister who was married was living one kilo meter away. I told my mother to get ready and I went to get my sister. My sister too said that we had to leave with my mother. On the way to get my mother, five hundred meters before her house – an army truck had stopped. No one was in uniform. They were all in civil, but they were carrying weapons. I was living in a small village, with about ten or fifteen families. When I saw this truck I immediately felt scared. I stopped my bike and went into a relative’s house.

These armed men started hitting people – they spoke in Sinhala and told me to get into the truck. There were 9 of us that were hit and made to get onto the truck. Some of the nine had blood dripping down them. Two of us were young, the rest were married with children. When the wives came to stop them – they hit the wives and children that got in the way.

In the truck, they told us to lie down and took us to a big forest in Amparai. They made us take our sarongs off and used it to tie our hands behind our back. They stood in front of us, loaded their machine guns and shot everyone I turned to my side – my leg and arm were hit by the bullets. I have a big scar on my leg. As people tried to get up, they were again shot till they were dead on the floor. So I just laid there with my eyes shut. My leg was badly hurt. I was not even sure I had a leg. I dragged my leg and slowly walked away.

22 November 2006

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