Othiyamalai massacre
01 December 1984
“On 2nd December 1984, 32 people were massacred here. My father and five of my uncles were killed. Around 5 or 5:30 in the morning, the SLA came to our village. We were small children then. We only know what people told us, we don't remember much. My father was listening to the radio. It was only when they caught him that we realized they were the SLA.”
This is a remote village on the border of Mullaithivu district. More or less the entire population worked in their own paddy fields and they had ample farming produce to live by. However, Sinhalese settlers were settling in Ken Farm and Dollar Farm and displacing the Upcountry Tamils in these places who had already been displaced from the Upcountry as a result of ethnic violence. From 29th November 1984 until 2nd December 1984 the SLAFs declared a curfew. A SLAFs regiment moved from Pathaviya to Othiyamalai on 1st December 1984. The SLAFs rounded up the people of Othiyamalai village. When the villagers opened their door at 5.00 am on that day, they saw the Sri Lankan soldiers standing in green attire. The soldiers spoke fluent Tamil and asked for all the men in the village to come to the Development Society building managed by the LTTE, and demanded that they assist the struggle waged by the LTTE. Deceived by the pretension of the Sri Lankan army soldiers 32 men went. Sithambarapillai Sagunthararasa otherwise known as Rasa lost his father and five uncles in the Othiyamalai Nedunkerni Massacre. His account is as follows: “On 2nd December 1984, 32 people were massacred here. My father and five of my uncles were killed. Around 5 or 5:30 in the morning, the SLA came to our village. We were small children then. We only know what people told us, we don't remember much. My father was listening to the radio. It was only when they caught him that we realized they were the SLA. They caught our uncle at our house. They tore up his shirt in front of us and tied his hands. Like this, the SLA went in twos and threes to every house and caught each family head. On Puthukkudiyiruppu Road, they saw a tractor. They took hold of the tractor and put everyone they had brought on this tractor to this road. They tied up every ones hands and eyes. They shot everyone whilst they were still tied. The watching villagers told us, that they put five people all over fifty years old on the back of a tractor. They took off the side doors of the tractor, placed them on the five men and stood on top of them singing and dancing as they drove away.”
22 November 2006
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Europe which has a total population of 800 million is made up of 45 language based nation states. South Asia which has a total population of one billion, (1000 million) is comprised of four states. Who is preventing and therefore benefiting by limiting new nation-states in South Asia?
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