The Role Of The IPKF And A Sequel
Rajan Hoole
The Indo-Lanka Accord and Sri Lanka’s Fault Lines: July 1987 – Part – 8
The incident above took place against a mounting cycle of violence. A number of Tamil militants had, as mentioned, been shipped from Boosa and released in Trincomalee. Owing to what had happened in Trincomalee in recent years, there was also a mood to respond harshly when an occasion arose. Conditions of detention had also made them vindictive. One incident at Boosa about the time of the Accord says something of their state. An evening meal, which the detainees were served, had resulted in loose stomachs. They told a soldier who came into a particular room that they needed relief. The soldier refused and a PLOTE militant beat him up. The soldier went out and came with others who started shooting at the detainees. The latter survived with graze injuries by holding themselves flat on the wire mesh above them. Nine of the detainees were then taken out, beaten, shot and were run over with a vehicle.
The first communal clashes started in Trincomalee on 18th September 1987. The Thileepan fast was going on in Jaffna and a group of 200 Tamil ‘satyagrahais’ went to Anuradhapura junction where they were confronted by a group of Sinhalese. This was at the height of Thileepan’s ‘Gandhian’ death fast in Jaffna (see Sect.15.3). Both groups pelted each other with stones. One Tamil and two Sinhalese died. The IPKF separated the two groups by firing tear gas.
The first massacre of civilians after the Accord took place on 24th September. Some persons from Mihindupura, a recently settled suburb of Trincomalee, had set off in 5 bullock carts along the Vavuniya Road to collect firewood. The next morning two bulls returned home with their carts. Later 9 charred bodies were found burnt with a cart at Kattankulam. Three or four of them were identified as Sinhalese and one, as a Malay. Although suspicion fell on the LTTE, a fuller account of the incident was not available. During June, the previous year, the Sinhalese settlements around Mihindupura had been the scene of massacres and counter-massacres. On the morning of Wednesday 30th September, the bodies of 2 Tamils hacked to death were found in Mud Cove. Subsequently, a Tamil group stopped a lorry coming from Nilaveli in the same area, abducted and killed 3 Sinhalese men and left a woman alive with knife wounds. Communal clashes erupted which left several people dead. The Sri Lankan Police and the Indian Army (IPKF) went out on patrol.
Then took place the incident of 1st October reported above. The firing near Town Hall by the Sri Lankan Army was given in testimony by prominent local civilians, but was not reported in the Press. The IPKF later opened fire at a crowd of Sinhalese, which gathered at King’s Hotel Junction after rioting had broken out, killing one person. Of the 200 houses burnt, 150 belonged to Sinhalese. According to the Press, 10 were killed on this day, 35 were injured and 2000 were rendered homeless. The discrepancy with the earlier account above, may have resulted from the Sinhalese thrown into wells and buried not being counted in the Government’s figures.
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To be continued..
*From Rajan Hoole‘s “Sri Lanka: Arrogance of Power - Myth, Decadence and Murder”. Thanks to Rajan for giving us permission to republish. To read earlier parts click here
