Army accused of Tamil massacre

Press, 19 August 1985, Page 10

Army accused of Tamil massacre

NZPA-AP New Delhi Tamil militants, alleging that Sri Lankan security forces had massacred 200 Tamil civilians, walked out of a peace conference on Saturday in Bhutan and threatened to renew their armed struggle for an independent homeland. The guerrillas alleged that soldiers, accompanied by armed Sinhalese “musclemen,” had attacked the villages of Sampantivu and Arankatti, in eastern Sri Lanka, on Friday afternoon, pulled people out of their homes, lined them up and shot them dead. The report could not be independently verified. Government officials in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital, declined comment on the allegation. They did confirm that in a separate incident, soldiers had shot and killed 21 people on Friday in Vavuniya, in the north of the country, in retaliation for a land-mine explosion that Tamil guerrillas were blamed for. Tamil rebels said that 200 civilians near Vavuniya had

been fatally shot by soldiers on Friday. The United News of India agency had quoted on Friday an unidentified rebel spokesman in the southern Indian city of Madras as saying that 72 Tamil civilians had been killed near Vavuniya. Saturday’s allegation was made by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the most powerful guerrilla group based in Madras, and was supported by four other armed groups in the southern Indian city. The militants, who began a guerrilla warfare two years ago to demand an independent Tamil homeland, said that their representatives attending peace talks with the Sri Lankan Government in Thimpu, the capital of Bhutan in the Himalayas, had walked out of the conference to protest against the latest killings.

“It is farcical to continue the peace talks when there is no peace and security for the Tamil people in their homeland,” said a statement issued in Madras by the five groups.

“Our participation at the talks has now been rendered impossible,” it said. But the guerrilla representatives did not intend to end the negotiations entirely. The talks, which began on Monday, were arranged by the Indian Government and sought to end Sri Lanka’s bloody ethnic crisis which has claimed hundreds of lives. The first round of negotiations held last month was inconclusive.

V. Balakumar, a spokesman for the guerrilla groups, said that the Tamil separatists planned to meet in Madras to discuss plans for “defensive operations” against the Sri Lankan Government in response to the killings.

The guerrillas say that their campaign for independence is supported by all of Sri Lanka’s Tamils, who make up 18 per cent of the country’s 15 million population. The Tamils are Hindus of Indian descent and claim discrimination by the majority Sinhalese, who are Buddhist.