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Questions still haunt Sri Lanka aid massacre
Written by: Peter Apps
Relatives mourn the killing of 17 tsunami aid workers at their funeral in Trincomalee in August 2006. REUTERS/Buddhika Weerasinghe
I remember the stench from the bloated corpses of the 17 dead Sri Lankan aid workers in the hospital and the cries of their families outside as I wondered if I had shaken the hands of their killers. Last week, a local human rights group detailed the hours before and after the murder of local tsunami workers in August 2006 and I'm asking the same question again. The workers from international aid group Action Contre la Faim (ACF) were gunned down in their compound at close range, the bullet wounds clearly visible on their bodies. Exactly a month after the massacre, I would break my neck in a vehicle smash on another assignment in eastern Sri Lanka. Two weeks after that, I was in a London hospital room beginning months of agonisingly isolated hospitalisation. But this story is not about that. It is about the little I know of what was at the time the bloodiest attack on the humanitarian community since a 2003 bomb attack on the United Nations Baghdad headquarters. People remember the Baghdad bomb. I'm not sure whether they remember what happened to the ACF staff - maybe because they were all local, maybe because their massacre and what happened in Sri Lanka that month coincided with the bloodiest phase of the much better covered Lebanon war. I was there in the northeastern Trincomalee district to cover the first proper ground fighting since a 2002 ceasefire between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels - a conflict that was genuinely shocking despite months of gradual escalation. I watched from a hotel across Trincomalee harbour as both sides shelled Mutur, a government-held Muslim enclave between Tiger-held ethnic Tamil areas and majority Sinhalese settlements further south. I saw the town's entire population flee south along a narrow dusty road through shellfire on foot, truck and motorbike. What I did not know was that while I watched the exodus, the ACF office in Trincomalee told its staff to stay put in the now deserted town. The radio contact that morning was the last they heard from the almost entirely Tamil team. The following day, some local journalists and I landed in Mutur with the military. It was a media tour designed to show that the town was back in army hands. Buildings were smashed, electricity lines cut by shellfire, dead cows in the streets. WHO TO BLAME? Weighed down in my heavy body armour in the intense heat and with sporadic gunfire still sounding from the town's outskirts, I was glad to get back out on an assault boat before dusk. The following evening, I got a call telling me that bodies of the ACF workers were strewn in their compound and I realised we must have walked within metres of the still-fresh corpses. They were far from fresh by the time I saw them days later in Trincomalee's morgue, having been carried miles by road on open tractor trailers. The smell was so bad that residents streets away covered their faces with cloths. Officials denied the killing and blamed the rebels, but most of the relatives loading their loved ones into closed caskets outside the morgue pointed their fingers towards the military - and the aid agency for sending them to Mutur that week. So who did it? The Tamil Tigers before they left the town? The commandos on whom I relied on my protection on our media tour? The unusually tall naval infantryman with an M-16 who I exchanged a nervous grin with? Or was it the policemen, auxiliary home guards and soldiers who shared their brackish, salty drinking water with me? Tuesday's report from Sri Lanka's University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR) says it was probably the latter. In what Human Rights Watch describes as "an extraordinary piece of investigation", they blame a Muslim home guard and two police constables for most of the killings. You can find the full report here . "BAD JOKE" They say the home guard's brother had been killed the previous day by a Tiger and he wanted revenge. They say senior officers implicitly approved and that an "air of celebration" prevailed at the police station after the massacre. They and other observers say the official investigation was simply "a bad joke" and cover-up. International experts invited in by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to oversee the enquiry are leaving the country saying it falls woefully short. The government says the enquiry continues, urging patience. UTHR says three witnesses have been killed and a fourth has disappeared - and the disappeared in Sri Lanka often stay that way. Others they know have fled the country. So as war continues to rage, it looks like my further questions will remain unanswered. Was the bearded special forces commander I met with a knife in his belt the same man who UTHR says ordered security forces to "finish off" any Tamil speakers in civilian clothes? From my new desk and wheelchair overlooking the skyscrapers of London's Canary Wharf, it can all feel an impossibly long time ago and a long way away. But the raw questions remain, and just because they may well never now be answered, it does not mean they should not be.
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16 responses to “Questions still haunt Sri Lanka aid massacre”
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10 Apr 2008 07:25:05 GMT
Dont forget, never forget them !! We need your voices ! We need the worlds help ! For 30 years those who got involved got in for their own interests !! In Zimbabwe how many are being killed ? If you can put so much attention on the living !! then how can you neglect the dying...today its my child, my mother, my brother...tomorrow its yours, they will come for !! its all about the principles !!! My dad always told me what he learnt a generation ago ...that my liberty ends where your nose begins...Democracy, liberalism, human rights are under threat around this world...those who have the access and the voice should pick a cause and fight for those principles...otherwise this planet is over. You and i will never be safe ..and might is right !!
P.S Your accident i have read about and I am sorry for it in Sri Lanka !! Your a great man to take risks for a cause and you have paid a price. I wish you well!10 Apr 2008 07:26:20 GMT
Bad Joke it is. Not just Sri Lankan government investigations, but I did not expect anything else fron a government that has killed 70,000 of its own people.
Bad joke was the international response to such an atrocity. Even two years after now, that whole wolrds knows the killing was with connivance of government. The government to continuing propped up and provided with military aid to continue the killing. Tamil people have to defend themselve on their own.10 Apr 2008 07:26:34 GMT
There are so many articles on this matter because they were members of actionfaim. But how about the countless people murdered by the SL forces? These guys were killed because they were tamils not because they were members of Actionfaim. The majority of the 70,000 odd people killed in SriLanka are tamils but still they call LTTE terorists. I don't know when the world will wake up to the reality. It is really sad!!
10 Apr 2008 07:26:58 GMT
Mass killings pogroms against Tamils in 1956, 1958, 1977, 1981 and 1983. Over 3,000 Tamils were killed in 1983 alone and still continue. More than 70,000 Tamils killed from 1983. For exampleââ¬Â¦Ã¢â¬Â¦ 1983: Welikade Prison Massacre, 1985: Valvettithurai Massacre, 1985: Vavuniya Massacre, 1985: Tiriyai Massacre, 1986: Iruthayapuram Massacre, 1986: Akkarapattu Massacre, 1987: Kokkaddichcholai Massacre , 1990: Saththurukkondan Massacre, 1992: Mylanthanai Massare, 1995: Chemmani Massacre, 1997: Kalutara prison Massacre, 2000: Bindunuwewa rehabilitation camp Massacre, 2000: Kumarapuram massacre, 2001: Mirisuvil Massacre, 2006: Allaipiddy Massacre, 2006: Muthur Humanitarian Aid workers Massacre ââ¬Â¦Ã¢â¬Â¦Ã¢â¬Â¦Ã¢â¬Â¦Ã¢â¬Â¦Ã¢â¬Â¦Ã¢â¬Â¦Ã¢â¬Â¦..
10 Apr 2008 07:29:56 GMT
UTHR says that a Home Guard and two Police Constaples were involved in killing. In that case, how could Mr. Apps attribute the killing to "Bearded Special Force Commander with knife in the belt" or "unusually tall naval infantryman with an M-16". All Special Force Men through out thr world carry Rambo knifes for protection and as utensil in their trade. Mr. Apps wanted to connect high ranking Office in Sri lanka Armed Serve in this killing when UTHR identified lowest randers in Police i.e Home Guar and contaples in killing. Is this a part of international conspiracy to tarish Sri lanka Goverment and High ranking officers in its Armed forces.
10 Apr 2008 07:30:29 GMT
Hello Peter Apps, My son Arjunan told me about your accident on that night. we were in Colombo. I was very sad for you. I am happy to note that you are back doing what you like best. Our is indeed a forgotten war. In Vietnam when a South Vietnamese soldier shot person point blank, the picture outraged the US and the war was lost on that day. 17 Tamils shot the same way, without a picture, does not get even a hearing or just investigation. Our war has no end. But I am sure journalist like you will not let the ACF 17 or the Trinco 5 be forgotten before justice is done. Ethir
10 Apr 2008 09:23:55 GMT
From as far back as 1958 the GoSL murdered and maimed Tamil dissidents with total immunity in the so called Democratic (bannana) Republic knowing well the international community could be deceived by the State machinery of disinformation. The blood of innocent mothers, children and men must be on the hands of those world democracies who only act in their own intersts selectively rather than the interests of those who are persecuted. This is one of the reasons for the rise of terrorism world wide.
10 Apr 2008 10:44:34 GMT
Hello Peter and other Journalist from Reuters who cover the war news from SL. The reuters news is usually one of the voices GoSL uses to put out lies. As your local journalists swallow wholly whatever the govt says other wise they will have fate of probably like Tharaki. Even your article tries to portray the current situation, it is a vague article, looks like written just to cover what UTHR has reported about. There should be investigative journalism by high calibre people like you, even though you embed with the forces, find the truth, seek it, it is out there...for our innocent tamil's sake...get well Peter.
10 Apr 2008 12:34:19 GMT
The massacre of 17 men and women of the French charity is tragic and we stand condemned for the fact their killers were not yet brought to justice. But equally disturbing is that the issue has now been converted to a tool of propaganda by LTTE apologists. Tamils in Sri Lanka deserve peace and equal treatment, but not this so called Tamil Diaspora, which funds terrorism at home. Sri Lankan Tamils are only cannon fodders for the LTTE. You can fund the Tigers to purchase weapons, but keep it mind that every time, Tigers smuggle one artillery gun, SL forces can buy ten for counter battery fire. No guarantee one stray shell will fell on civilians. Right violations occur anywhere in the battle field, from Indo China to Iraq. These loud mouth Tiger sympathizers would only make things worse
10 Apr 2008 14:06:15 GMT
I agree with Vanikumar and Jaya. killing 17 Tamil charity workers are a terrible crime worse than killing 96 innocent Tamils and Sinhalese workers in Central Bank bomb in 1996 and killing These Tamil charity workers were helping tsunami victims when they were killed by blood thirst group. . When I visited that area last year the locals told me that it was a reprisal by LTTE because Action Contre la Faim (ACF) wanted to help Muslim and Tamils victims. But LTTE insisted that they help only Tamil When ACH rightly refused and started to give aid to Muslims as well LTTE decided the teach a lesson to the Organization by killing the aid workers who happened to be Tamils just like them. This is b not the first time LTTE killed their own people t. all the educated and well respected Tamil politicians have been gunned down by them including Amirthalingam, Thiruchlvem and Ministers Kadiragamar and Jeyarajfernando
As reader Vannikumar has rightly points out in his comments above there have been many massacres in Srilanka. I know he has not had enough space to write about the Anuradapura massacre of 187 innocent pilgrims carried out by LTTE 1964, Aranthawila massacre where 45 Buddhists were gun down, Pollonaruwa Massacre where 123 innocent women,men and children Civilians were butchered by LTTE in 1989, Maradana town Massacre (1988) where 63 school children were killed, Kebithigollawa Massacre (2006) when 52 innocent bus passengers were butchered and recent Buttala massacre where 16 were gunned down . LTTE is hell bent on destroying Tamils and Sinhalese alike and the world still keeps quiet, Why? I am really sorry about Peter Appsâ accident, He is only one of the few journalists who has not yet fallen to the powerful TIGER propaganda machine, He look at the situation in Srilanka with an unbiased eye and does s not shy away from condemning these LTTE killers or Srilankan army. As Manimarappthy says this killer megalomaniac and his cronies have killed 70,000 innocents Srilankans so far . Nagalingam Ethirveerasingam says above ours has become a forgotten war. When is the world wake up to the heinous crimes and attriocities commited by this ruthless killer Prabakaran on daily basis and come to the aid of Srilanka and its Tamil and sinhala population I hope Pete Apps you will continue to speak for the innocent Sinhalese and Tamils alike for years to come.10 Apr 2008 21:20:23 GMT
I agree fully with Sunita's comments. It is very difficult to see that all humans are equal going beyond the bounds of race, religion, cast or creed without being emotionally attached. Which is why why we see lot of biased views and fall for propaganda in general. Peter Apps article is one unbiased account of what he has experienced and without prejudice. You shall get well for humanity's sake Peter. Sunita, cheers to you too.
11 Apr 2008 09:34:41 GMT
Lets correct a few misrepresentations here first. The 70,000 killed in the Sri Lankan war include 25,000 Sri Lankan Forces and 25,000 LTTE (their own figures). The rest are Tamil, Sinhalese and Moslem civilians killed by both the SL Forces and the LTTE. These include the victims of bus bombs, train bombs, market bombs, the Machatte Masacres of Moslem and Sinhala villages in the 90's LTTE program to ethnically cleanse the Eastern Province and many targetted assasinations both by the LTTE and Army.
The word I have on the ACF masacre (from an Air Force officer and a senior government official) was that when the LTTE initially shelled this Moslem Town held by the Army the shelling was so accurate the Army suspected that the fire was being directed by someone within the town. Of course all the civilians had fled by then. Later, the ACF workers were discovered in their compound with their radios (which they used to communicate with HQ). One or more of them were suspected of being an LTTE infiltrator and they all paid the price for it.11 Apr 2008 16:07:43 GMT
First the Tamil voice followed on by Sri Lankan propaganda. These two people better go their own way. This island is going to be submerged in blood brefore sea submerges it. Government and its (paid) supporters is going to offer no justice or eqal rights. It has become accusation of of anyone raising voices against whats happening on that island to minorities. This is another Rwanda, Somalia, Nigeria, Uganda, Zimbabuwe, etc. Tamils cannot get their messgae to Sinhalese as enough Tamils have also been bought over by SL's government - the biggest Tamil weakness. World will not come to the recue of the opressed unless heavy lobbing takes place at higher level not only by Tamil minority but also other global powers (peace loving). Else, it will be the arms buyer who may stay in power and both the poeple will become very poor. Sri Lanka's economy is far from what one may call healthy already! Good luck to the oppressed!
16 Apr 2008 08:15:13 GMT
The main point to be resolved is wheather they were killed as ACF member or as tamil terrorists so the independent investigation is necessary for that case even may be the rebels accuse the gov and vice versa
23 Apr 2008 08:06:06 GMT
May the souls of the 17 workers of ACF rest in peace. For them gunshot were not their award
13 May 2008 16:17:45 GMT
Sunita Sundaralingam fails to note the point that Sri Lankan government is trying its level best to HIDE the killers, which clearly indicates that these killings were NOT a handiwork of LTTE. It would be great if Sunita could forget about her background and look at the realities with open eyes and write something which would be logical instead of writing some comments which sound illogical even to kids.