What Happened
Veeramunai is a village in the Amparai district. It is a traditional Tamil village. Sammanthurai is the adjacent Muslim village. The Muslims and Tamils have historically lived side by side and together have built a prosperous and peaceful community.
On 20.06.1990, Sri Lankan military rounded up the village and ordered the people to go to the Veeramunai Pillaiyar temple. Everyone who stayed at home without going to the temple was shot dead. The military selected every male over the age of 15 from the temple. 69 young men were arrested and taken to the Sammanthurai Marjan School where they were tortured. 50 men died and their bodies were burnt.
The military again took several more people on 29.06.1990 and all of them disappeared. On 03.07.1990, they took 11 young men. They too disappeared.
On 05.07.1990, 13 more men were taken, tortured, killed and burnt with tires.
On 16.07.1990, eight women who went to check their homes were arrested at the Malwaththai checkpoint. They were gang raped by more than 30 SLA men and killed. Their bodies were burnt.
On 26.07.1990, 32 young men were arrested. 23 of them were school children. All disappeared.
On 01.08.1990, 18 civilians including four women and a baby were arrested and killed using sharp weapons. Their bodies were put inside a temple and burnt.
Between 20.06.1990 and 15.08.1990 more than 200 people were killed or disappeared. More than 2000 houses were burnt.
Eyewitness: "The soldiers entered the temple and examined the inner sanctum. They began picking some youths and able bodied children and got them to board a bus. The women pleaded stating that their children were never associated with any form of terrorism. The soldiers ignored the tears of the women. We fell in front of the vehicles and worshiped the soldiers to leave our boys."
Survivor Madasamy Kathirkamamoorthy: "In the truck, they told us to lie down and took us to a big forest in Amparai. They made us take our sarong 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. As people tried to get up, they were again shot till they were dead on the floor."
Perpetrators
Sri Lankan Army
Sources & References
- NESOHR - Lest We Forget Volume I