The Mannkumban attack before Allaipiddy massacre
May 16th, 2006
By D.B.S. Jeyaraj
Disturbing details have emerged about a little known attack that injured two people in Mankumban on Friday May 12th night before the massacre in adjacent Allaipiddy on Saturday 13th night. Though news of the comparatively “mild” Mankumban attack has been overshadowed by the more gruesome Allaipiddy attack there is evidence to suggest that the former may have been a “trial run” for the latter and perpetrated by the same four assassins.
Mankumban adjacent to Allaipiddy is a village along the road that branches off from Pannai causeway to Oorkavalthurai (Kayts). On Friday 12th night an attack occurred in ward number five of Mankumban.
Four men in shorts and tee – shirts had climbed over the parapet wall around the compound and then entered the house forcibly. The two residents in the house were a 51 year old man P. Suntharalingam and his 28 year old daughter S. Jeyaranee. The assailants had engaged in a firing spree within the house and then fled from the area on motor cycles. The incident which took only a few minutes happened between 11. 40 to 11. 45 pm.
Both father and daughter were badly wounded in the gunfire. When neighbours and relatives rushed to the house they found them bleeding and semi – conscious. When the people of Mankumban tried to take the injured persons to Kayts hospital they encountered a problem.
The hospital authorities were reluctant to send out an anbulance without approval by the Police. But the Kayts police though duly informed of the incident remained unconcerned. They did not visit the scene or register the complaint. When the hospital employees queried the Kayts police replied that they had no information about such an attack in Mankumban. With the Police being uncooperative the Hospital personnel too were afraid to act .
This resulted in both shooting victims losing much blood and becoming unconscious. Finally after many hours of pleading the Police relented. By this time the condition of both victims had deteriorated badly and the Kayts hospital was not equipped to handle them. So both father and daughter were brought to the Jaffna teaching hospital. Surgery was performed and both are now under intensive care.
Though the conduct of the Kayts Police seems to be an example of callous inhumanity at face value it is suspected that there may have been an underlying motive. The Police may have been aware of such an attack being planned and expected the victims to have been killed.
With both surviving there is suspicion that the cops may have been instructed by those masterminding the attack to delay matters so that the victims would die of haemorrage. Such delaying methods have often been used by security personnel to ensure deaths of victims in other instances.
The identity of the assailants or reasons for the shooting is yet unknown. But it is felt that the Mankumban attack was a rehearsal or dry run for the more deadly attack on the following night in Allaipiddy. The same four assassins involved in te Allaipiddy massacre are suspected of being involved in Mankumban.
It is also believed that the assassins themselves may have been nervous and unsure because the Mankumban attack was a trial. This may explain the wild shooting which failed to kill the inmates of the house. The assailants were very quick and hurried in this dry run. On the following night the four assassins were steady and cool. They butchered eight people including a sleeping infant without any hesitation. Perhaps the rehearsal at Mankumban provided the practice for Allaipiddy it is felt.
Meanwhile the Inspector General Of Police Chandra Fernando acting on President Mahinda Rajapakse’s instructions has ordered a special probe into the incident. The sleuths are expected to “focus” more on the angle about certain elements trying to discredit the Government of Sri Lanka rather than bringing the perpetrators to justice.
In a related development the parents and siblings of 38 year old Ratnam Senthuran alias Nesan testified at the inquest. Senthuran with the assistance of his family was running a tea boutique at Vangalavady in Velanai East. He was killed on the Same 13th night that the Allaipiddy massacre occurred.
The family said that a gang of armed youths came at about 4 pm the same day and asked for Senthuran. He was not there at the time. The armed gang had then asked the family the reasons for closing the cafe on earlier occasions. Senthuran had shut the business to observe a hartal protesting civilian deaths in Jaffna. The Navy and Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) activists had wanted it open.
The gang had then left. Later in the night some armed men with covered faces had come . Senthuran was sleeping at the rear. They armed men had shot him dead. The inquests of the other victims wll take place this week.
The “reuters” news agency quoted a 20 year old girl Nirosha from Allaipiddy who said that the people of the area blamed the EPDP for the killings and not the LTTE or the security forces. She also said that the people felt they were safer in LTTE controlled areas than the GOSL controled areas.
According to a Human Rights Commission (HRC) official who visited Allaipiddy the people of the area were not sleeping at their homes due to fear. They were all sleeping en masse at the St. Philip Neri’s Church. This practice had begun from the night of the Saturday attac when inmates of a house in Ward no two in Allaipiddy were brutally massacred.
On May 13th at about 8. 30 pm four men wearing shorts and tee – shirts had entered the house forcibly and begun firing at the people inside. It appears that the men went upstairs and downstairs shooting away at their targets. One person seated down near the doorway listening to the radio was shot dead. So too were a sleeping family of four. The parents and two children were killed in sleeping position. Three men staying on the upper storey were also shot dead. Eight people staying in the house were killed.
The men then went outside to a shop . After firing a few shots they threw a grenade inside. Three people were seriously injured.
Fr. Amalathas the Catholic priest at nearby St. Philip Neri church collected some people and went to the scene of violence. They were horrified by what they saw. Eight dead people were lying dead. What was most appalling was the brutal killing of two children including an infant..
The dead victims at the Allaipiddy house and their ages were
1. Ketheeswaran Yathursan – 4 months
2. Ketheeswaran Thanushkanth – 4 years
3. Agnes Esther Ketheeswaran (23),
4. Palachamy Ketheeswaran (25),
5. Sellathurai Amalathas (28)
6.. Abraham Robinson (29)
7. Ganeshan Navaratnam (50)
8. Joseph Anthonymuttu (64)
Fr.Amalathas and Allaipiddy people then ran to the shop. They found three persons inside who were injured but alive. They then tried to take them to the Jaffna hospital via the Pannai causeway. The navy men on security duty refused to let them proceed. Finally Fr. Amalathas had to telephone the Jaffna district judge of their plight who in turn contacted the navy top brass and obtained necessary “permission”.
The three injured people were rushed to Jaffna hospital. But Sinnathurai Sivanesan (46) succumbed to his injuries. He may have lived if the navy had allowed him to be brought to the Hospital without delay. Sivanesan’s wife S Mohanambikai (46)
and T Sellathurai (61) though seriously wounded are alive still and receiving treatment.
The violence continued in areas of Velanai .
A tea boutique – closed for the day – in Vangalavadi was attacked between 10 to 10.30 pm..Ratnam Senthuran (38) the owner was dragged out and shot dead. The assailants also set fire to the place.
Further up on the same same road is Puliyankoodal junction in Velanai from where three roads go to Naranthanai, Suruvil and Karamban respectively. There was a row of shops and businesses at Puliyankoodal. Among these is a telecommunication centre which is open 24 hours of the day. A gang of armed youths arrived at the spot between 10. 30 to 11. 00 pm. They wore dark blue balaclavas to hide their faces. Some also had red bands tied around their heads.
The main target of the gang seemed to be the telecommunication centre. Three members of the same family running it were shot dead. The victims were the father . Murugesu Shanmugalingam (72), mother Shanmugalingam Parameswari (65) and son S Kantharoopan (29) . Another son managed to run away and hide down a well to escape the assailants. Some people from the other businesses also ran out and escaped.
The marauders exploded grenades inside the telecommunication centre. They also took fuel from a nearby depot and set fire to the place. They also set fire to the other businesses in the area. The fuel depot was also burnt down. The commercial establishments including the telecom centre burnt down at Puliyankoodal numbered ten.
It appears that there were a few eye – witnesses to the violence and killings. The prime suspects were the Navy and EPDP. It appeared that the Allaipiddy massacre was done by one group and the Velanai violence by another. In Allaipiddy the actual violence was done by navy men in civils with EPDP men aiding and abetting. In the case of Velanai violence EPDP men were suspected of being in the forefront with navy men also participating.
There are many theories about the targets of violence but a brief account of recent history in the area is necessary to understand the context. The Navy – EPDP nexus had the Islands in an ironclad security grip for many years. The situation changed after the ceasefire when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) entered the area to do “politics” and made their presence felt.
EPDP power dwindled considerably. This was illustrated clearly through the Parliamentary elections of 2004 and Presidential elections of 2005. Earlier the EPDP had much “influence” through the captive vote bank.
With the LTTE political cadres “officially” withdrawing from Govt controlled areas last year the situation began reversing itself. But violence erupted sporadically again this April.
On Sunday April 30th the relative calm of Allaipiddy was shattered when a tiger claymore mine went off at the junction. Two navy men were injured. They were airlifted to Palaly and then Colombo. The incident took place at 6. 40 pm. Some sailors at Allaipiddy ran amok. They entered houses in the area and assaulted people. A 74 year old man Ramasamy Sangarapillai was shot to death despite his pleading not to shoot him.
Relations between the navy and people in Allaipiddy began to sour after the April 30th. The navy felt people in the area were harbouring tigers. Their suspicion fell on the big house occupied by S, Amaladhas and others. The prime suspect was Ganeshan Navaratnam who was also staying there. Navaratnam was a business associate of Amaladhas. He was from Kottadi in Jaffna and a father of five children. Three of them were in the Wanni and believed to be closely linked to the tigers.
The navy and EPDP from the area regarded the house as a tiger den. They suspected perhaps all inmates including the 4 month infant to be “kotiyas” and “kotipetau”. On may 3rd some navy men went to the house, inspected it casually and then asked the residents in a friendly way to give them the house to set up camp. This was refused.
It is not known whether the decision to attack the house and kill inmates was taken officially or unofficially. It is also not known when it was taken or who made the decision. The tension however was simmering from May 1st. The flashpoint may have come after the LTTE attack on the “Pearl Cruise II” and other Dvoras on May 11th. The navy was seething.
As far as the Velanai violence was concerned the Navy was angry with the business people for shutting down during hartals. Despite the navy insisting they remain open the businesses had closed defiantly. This was seen as part of tiger designs. The tea boutique owner and the family running the telecom centre were perceived as active tiger supporters. Both had refused to pay “kappam” money to the EPDP.There has also been some tensions with navy personnel demanding “free” telephone calls and free cigarettes, food and tea.
Many cadres of the EPDP in the area came from Thambatty in Naranthanai. It is an EPDP stronghold. It was here that an EPDP mob attacked the TULF and injured people like Senathirajah, Raviraj and Sivajilingam some years ago during election campaign in 2000. Most people from Thambatty belonged to the so called oppressed castes. The businesspeople of Velanai belonged to the so called high castes. Thus there was much friction between the two groups that were political and socio- cultural.This too may have played a part in all this.
With some action happening in Allaipiddy the green light may have been given in Velanai too. So an action plan unfolded there too. In Allaipiddy the navy took the lead role with EPDP playing second fiddle. In Velanai the EPDP seems to have played the major role with the navy playing sidekick.
Meanwhile the Amnesty International has issued a statement on the May 13th violence and called upon the Government to investigate the incidents. The AI statement is given below -
AI Index: ASA 37/014/2006 (Public)
News Service No: 125
16 May 2006
Sri Lanka: Amnesty International condemns killings of civiliansAmnesty International is alarmed by the increasing number of civilians killed as a low-intensity armed conflict appears to be escalating, despite a 2002 ceasefire agreement between the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). More than 200 people have been killed over the past month alone, the majority of them civilians, and more than 20,000 others have been displaced from their homes. Amnesty International fears that a collapse of the ceasefire agreement and return to full-scale armed conflict would have further devastating consequences for civilians.
In separate incidents over the past weekend, 13-14 May, at least 18 civilians were reportedly killed in the north and east of Sri Lanka. Thirteen Tamil civilians were reportedly killed in a spate of incidents on Kayts Island, a small islet off the northwestern coast of the Jaffna Peninsula that is strictly controlled by the Sri Lanka Navy, which has a major base there. On 13 May, at about 8.30 p.m., unidentified gunmen reportedly entered the home of Sellathurai Amalathas in Allaipiddy and opened fire. Eight people were killed on the spot, including a four-month-old baby and four-year-old boy, and one other person died later in hospital. In another incident, at around 10:30 p.m. the same night, unidentified gunmen reportedly entered the home of 72-year-old Murugesu Shanmugalingam in Puliyankoodal, also on Kayts Island, and shot him and two other members of his family dead. Ten shops in Puliyankoodal were reportedly burnt down. In Vangalady, gunmen reportedly entered the home of Ratnam Senthuran, a tea shop owner, and shot him dead. Other members of his family also were shot and injured, but managed to escape.
The government has condemned the Kayts Island killings and announced that a police investigation is underway. Amnesty International welcomes these initial steps but notes that there is a disturbing pattern of incomplete or ineffective investigations by the government, with the result that perpetrators of such violence generally operate with impunity. In accordance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Sri Lanka has ratified, the government must carry out independent, impartial and effective investigations into all killings; the results of these investigations should be made public, and those found responsible for the attacks must be brought to justice. Without effective investigations and prosecutions, the cycle of retaliatory violence that so endangers the lives of civilians is likely to escalate.
The LTTE has accused the Sri Lanka Navy of responsibility for the attacks on Kayts Island, a charge which the Navy has denied. However, Amnesty International has received credible reports that Sri Lanka Navy personnel and armed cadres affiliated with the Eelam People’s Democratic Party, a Tamil political party that is opposed to the LTTE, were present at the scene of the killings. The government in turn has suggested that the LTTE orchestrated the attack in order “to divert international opinion”.
Regardless of who is responsible for the attacks, the Sri Lankan government has obligations under international law to take steps to prevent such killings, to ensure that those who commit them are brought to justice, and that the families of those killed are able to obtain redress.
Amnesty International calls on all parties to the conflict–including the government of Sri Lanka, the LTTE, and other armed groups–to take all possible measures to avoid harm to civilians and respect international humanitarian law, which prohibits murder or violence to those taking no active part in hostilities.
Related:
- Navy – EPDP kill thirteen civilians in Allaipiddy-Velanai
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