Chronology Of Ltte Terror -Part 53
From the Daily News Archives:
When the euphoria of victory dies down, and
together with it the media hype ceases, when the guns do not rattle and
boom anymore and the sky, the land and the sea become calm and serene,
when tranquillity reigns through it is natural to live in the present
moment and forget the past. But one cannot live in the present without a
past. Nor can one envision the future discarding the experience of the
preceding events.
Hence the Daily News is serialising the
Chronicle of LTTE Terror taken from our own archives which would remind
our readers how it all began. An awareness of the chronology of terror
would help us prevent the recurrence of such terror and frustrate any
attempts by misguided elements to repeat history to suit their evil
designs. It was not simple terror. Nor was terror sporadic.
It was all pre-planned, pre-determined,
well-calculated terror. The victims were innocent people. Though it is
too many innumerate we would like to recall the major episodes in the
Chronology of Terror.
[Thursday April 04, 1991]
Surprised at sea, lined up on a beach and shot:
Massacre of fishermen by Tigers at Trinco
Colombo, Wednesday (Lankapuwath) - LTTE terrorists are reported to
have carried out a brutal massacre of Sinhala fishermen in the early
hours at Sampur, across the Koddiyar Bay, South of Trincomalee.
Official sources said that 100 fishermen had put out to sea from
Sampur fishing village last evening. They cast lines and settled down to
a night’s fishing, when boat loads of terrorists had suddenly emerged
from the darkness and rounded them up at gunpoint.
They had been taken ashore’ to a lonely beach, lined up and shot.
Some fishermen had managed to escape.
Two vallams (country boats) had been burnt by the LTTE and the bodies
of eleven fishermen were found. Nine injured fishermen are warded in
hospital.
The Army and Navy have launched a massive land and sea search for a
number of fishermen yet missing.
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LTTE trail
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Police and security forces are guarding Tamil villagers in the
vicinity, to prevent a backlash from the LTTE massacre, official sources
said. Army Commander, Lieutenant General Hamilton Wanasinghe who visited
the battle zone and the northern division headquarters at Anuradhapura
Tuesday, said that current operations by the security forces to clear
the Mannar and Vavuniya districts of the LTTE were proceeding according
to plan.
He said Government troops had driven to the terrorists from a number
of areas and earmarked targets were destroyed.
In one operation, he said, the security forces were marching from
Thandikulam, three miles north of Vavuniya town, to Mannar.
Official sources said a number of LTTE cadres travelling in two
vehicles on the Mannar-Vavuniya road were killed when the two targets
were attacked by the Lankan Air Force.
One soldier was killed in this operation, at Netpulukulam.
Two soldiers were killed in an encounter with terrorists at Nanadan,
in Mannar.
The LTTE suffered many casualties, but their number is not known,
sources said. The curfews in the Mannar and Vavuniya districts continue,
expect for Mannar island and Vavuniya town.
A curfew is also in force in Kilinochchi district. A terrorist was
killed at Palaly, Jaffna and another at Karuwanvali, South of Batticaloa.
The body of another LTTE cadre was found at Karudujanaru, in
Batticaloa, where earlier seven terrorists were killed when ambushed by
Government troops.
[Tuesday April 16, 1991]
Tigers massacre sleeping villagers in New Year spree
While most of the country was about to retire after celebrating New
Year’s day on Sunday a band of LTTE terrorists set about butchering
civilians in the farming colony of Ethimalai, on the border of the
Amparai-Moneragala districts.
Seventeen persons, including three women and seven children, were
brutally shot and hacked to death by a band of some 20 terrorists armed
with guns, swords and knives. The victims were all asleep after their
traditional New Year observances. Six of the houses in the colony were
torched by the Tigers, who had withdrawn by the time STF commandos
responded to news of the surprise attack.
A villager who had rushed to seek STF help had his leg blown off when
he stepped on a pressure mine while leading the STF team to the scene of
the massacre.
Yesterday, Lankapuvath reported that a manhunt has been launched by
the security forces to track the killers who are believed to be hiding
in the thick jungle surrounding the village.
In heightened LTTE violence on New Year’s day, the terrorists also
killed five soldiers and wounded five others in an attack on a troop
patrol at Gajabahapura, Weli Oya, in the Trincomalee district.
Lankapuvath also reported that six LTTE cadres were killed by
government troops in an encounter at a point between Kalaputhram and
Sardapura, in Trincomalee. One soldier was killed in the incident.
LTTE attacks on the security forces forward lines at Pemaduwa and
Yakawewa, in Vavuniya, were repulsed on Sunday. There were no casualties
among the forces.
The 2500 Tamil civilians being detained at the LTTE barrier at
Thandikulam were finally allowed to leave - but forced to turn back and
return to the north instead of proceeding south as they wanted to.
A curfew was imposed in the Mannar district, except for Mannar
island, from 6 a.m. yesterday.
Tigers kill five farmers
Sisira Priyantha Gunaratne, Hingurana group
correspondent
LTTE terrorists killed five chena farmers and wounded another at
Bulathwalara, at the sixth milepost on the Ampara-Siyambalanduwa road on
Thursday night. The dead were identified as D.M. Ranhamy, K.M. Ukkubanda,
D. Gunasundara, H.M. Karunaratne and D. Sudubanda.
The bodies have been handed over to the next-of-kin.
Farmer Chandrapala Wanasinghe, who was injured too, escaped and spent
the night in the jungle.
Tigers massacre Tamil village in B’caloa
COLOMBO, Wednesday (Lankapuvath) - Nine Tamil civilians, six men, two
women and a 12-year-old girl were killed on Monday night in the farming
village of Weligahakandiya on the Southern border of Batticaloa
district. Official sources said the victims had been taken into a nearby
jungle south of Unnichchi tank and hacked to death. A woman survivor
Dayawathi Jayarathnam, a Sinhalese married to a Tamil farmer, who
managed to escape, tracked through thick jungle reported the massacre.
The woman had deep cut injuries on her neck and spine. She was rushed
to hospital, her condition was reported to be critical.
She said the massacre at Wehigahakandiya, a Tamil village was a
revengeful act by the LTTE which suspected the villagers of having
informed the Forces of and LTTE camp at Wehigahakandiya. The camp was
raided by Government troops on June 5.
 The Security Forces captured a number of LTTE men and two women
terrorists, 500 rounds of ammunition, hand grenades magazines and a
rifle.
LTTE lines up 100 fishermen on a beach and mows them down
Wijitha Nakkawita
The LTTE were not only land based but also had become a seafaring
group of terrorists much more ruthless than the pirates of the earlier
centuries. In the month of April 2001 the terrorist group for the
umpteenth time went on a killing spree this time using the sea for their
bloody orgy.
The fishing village Sampur in the Trincomalee district was a well
known locality of traditional fishermen who used vallams to go to sea to
make a living. The times were not good for them yet they had to make a
living. On the night of April 3 a group of vallams had put out to sea
and were about to reach the area where shoals of fish were usually
present when they noticed a set of mechanized boats approaching them.
Soon the flotilla of boats approached the fishermen and in the
darkness of the night their trained eyes observed that the boats carried
armed men in some kind of uniforms. At first the fishermen thought it
was the Sri Lanka Navy on a patrol of the seas but the men in the boats
ordered the fishermen to turn back their vallams and sail towards the
beach. The boats carrying the armed men directed the vallams towards
Koddiyar Bay near Trincomalee where the fishermen were ordered to go
ashore leaving their fishing craft at the beach.
There were over a 100 fishermen who were taken to a lonely stretch of
beach and were asked to line up. By now the fishermen knew they were
being abducted by the LTTE terrorists but unarmed fishermen could not
defend themselves. They were lined up and shot at point blank range by
the terrorists and exactly 100 among them fell dead. Another 10
fishermen were injured most probably the terrorists missing them in the
darkness.
The nine injured fishermen were later admitted to the Trincomalee
hospital.
The LTTE not only killed Sinhalese and Muslim villagers and fishermen
but also killed even Tamils who opposed or disagreed with them. On April
the LTTE held about 1000 Tamil men,women and children who had come to
Thandikulam in the north to come to the south for the coming Sinhala/Hindu
new year festival.
But the terrorist checkpoint at Thandikulam screened each person even
if he/she was Tamil . These people were asked to pay Rs.10,000 if they
wanted to cross the LTTE checkpoint. Some of them who could not afford
to pay the amont pleaded with the LTTE terrorists who did not listen to
pleas.
Therefore some people returned to their villages to find the money
and only those who could afford to pay the extortion money were allowed
to cross to the south and that too after keeping them for a whole day at
their checkpoint.
Tigers ambush private van at Lahugala, kill 18 passengers
LTTE terrorists on Thursday evening killed 18 passengers in a private
bus, including a Danish tourist returning from a wildlife expedition
near the 12 mile post at Hulanuga, Lahugala, in the Ampara district.
Official sources said the terrorists ambushed the vehicle with
claymore mines and sprayed it with bullets.
The vehicle was on its way to Colombo from Pottuvil, carrying a load
of Sinhala and Muslim passengers. The Danish tourist’s passport gave his
name as Rasmussen Tesferto.
A Lankapuvath report said among others killed were eleven women, two
children and the driver of the bus B. H. Gamini de Silva.
Anthony Lenin, the conductor and brother of the driver, and the bus
usually left Pottuvil on its journey to Colombo at 16.15 hrs (local
time). But on Thursday they had left one hour later. 30 passengers were
seated and 10 were standing.
The bus had passed the STF barrier at the approach to Lahugala and
entered the town ten kilometres from Pottuvil. During a one hour stop
there, the passengers and crew had refreshment. Four more passengers had
also boarded the bus. At 19.00 hrs, the bus had set out on the second
leg of its journey to Siyambaladuwa and had proceeded four kilometres
when it ran into and LTTE ambush.
The conductor said he had led a group of passengers, including two
Buddhists monks into the jungle.
A few minutes later, after they had massacred the other passengers,
the terrorists had called out in Sinhalese to these hiding in the
jungle. “We are the STF. You can now come out.” But the conductor had
discerned that the voices were not those of Sinhalese and asked him
passengers not to heed the call.
Tigers kill two Veddas, abduct eight
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LTTE trail
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Two veddas were killed and eight were abducted by the LTTE, while the
tribesmen were hunting in the Hennigala jungles, Security sources said
yesterday.
A muzzle loading gun and a torch were removed by the killers. The
whereabouts of the eight missing veddas are still not known.
Security sources said that of the eight villagers abducted by the
LTTE in the Kanthadipitiya jungle, seven miles off Manampitiya, on
Monday night, four have been found. They were unharmed.
In another incident, LTTE terrorists shot a soldier dead at
Thoppigala. Security Forces meanwhile killed twelve Tigers in three
separate gun battles in the North and East.
Tomorrow - Slaughter in Puttur, Karapola
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