In a display of extreme brutality, a 75-strong sword-wielding band of suspected Tamil Tiger rebels descended on Punchi Sigiriya, near Uhana, eight miles north-west of Amparai town in the Eastern Province, on 18 September. Before the carnage was over, 48 Sinhalese people lay dead. Six others were killed in Borapola and Bedirekka. The dead included 14 children. Four people were seriously wounded.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have denied involvement, but observers have no doubt that the Tigers carried out the massacre. The LTTE have killed hundreds of Sinhalese civilians on the north-east border of the conflict zone, including 120 people in Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Amparai districts in October 1995. Although small attacks continued after 1995, no large-scale assaults on villages were launched, allegedly on the instruction of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. New orders have apparently been issued.
Amnesty International condemned the deliberate killings and called on the leadership of the LTTE to immediately halt attacks on civilians and instruct members to comply with humanitarian law. Mr Prabhakaran wrote to the Human Rights Commission in February 1988, confirming that the LTTE had transmitted a notice to the UN and the ICRC, accepting the Geneva Conventions.
The Tiger attack is said to be a reprisal for the Sri Lankan Airforce bombing in the LTTE stronghold of Mullaitivu District in the Northern Province. An Airforce plane swooped down on Puthukudyiruppu, 20 miles south-east of Kilinochchi town on 15 September and bombed a crowded market place at Manthuvil junction. The ICRC say 15 Tamil refugees, including two children, were killed in the market and six others died later in Puthukudyiruppu hospital. Many of the dead were from Jaffna. Thirty five people suffered serious injuries. A number of shops and huts were also destroyed.
The military initially claimed that LTTE camps near Nanthikadal lagoon were targeted on the basis of intelligence reports and denied that civilians had been killed. Relief workers say that the refugee settlement had been in existence for more than three years and could not have been mistaken for a Tiger camp.
Local people believe that the attack was in retaliation for Army losses in Operation Rana Gosha V (Battle Cry) in Mannar, three days earlier. The Airforce has killed hundreds of civilians in the north-east. Military planes bombed the Navaly Church in Jaffna in July 1995 killing 65 people. In September that year, 34 school children died in aerial attacks.
Amnesty International has written to President Chandrika Kumaratunge expressing concern that not all precautions are being taken to protect civilians. Care must be exercised in selecting and vetting targets, choosing the timing and the manner of carrying out attacks. Civilians must be given advanced warning when possible. Amnesty has asked to receive relevant details of the rules of engagement and other instructions given to pilots to assess whether these comply with the rules of humanitarian law.
The ICRC was concerned over the alarming upsurge in civilian deaths and called on the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE to desist from brutal and indiscriminate acts which spread terror amongst civilians. The UN office in Colombo also expressed deep concern over extensive civilian casualties in the two incidents.
Government-controlled Colombo newspaper Daily News says that Foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, who was in New York to attend UN General Assembly sessions, was furious and declared that UN agencies have no authority to speak on Sri Lanka’s domestic problems, accusing them of attempting to expand their mandate. He declared that the Airforce attack was an accident while the LTTE killings were not and criticized the ICRC for failing to make the distinction. The response of Mr Kadirgamar for the Navaly Church killings in 1995 was similar. He censored the ICRC for releasing news of the incident before informing the government.
Observers are concerned that this may be the beginning of a return to large-scale revenge killings which may harden attitudes on both sides and affect peace initiatives such as the one in which the Sri Lankan business community is involved. This will also strengthen Sinhalese and Tamil hardliners who are against peace talks and want the war to continue.
Tamil party EPDP say, since the Amparai killings Army harassment of Tamil civilians in the east has increased and have demanded protection for Tamil villages. Digamadulla MP HM Weerasinghe has urged the government to issue machine guns to 600 Home Guards in Amparai to ensure the safety of the Sinhalese villagers.
The NGO-led National Peace Council (NPC) says that these killings will only serve to undermine the credibility and the legitimacy of the parties in taking any possible peace process forward. Barbaric behaviour, NPC says, only results in misery to the victims and demonisation of both parties among the general population, which is harmful to any potential peace process.