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NorthEast Secretariat on Human Rights released a report related to the destruction of life, property and community in Pesalai, on December 23rd 2005. the full text of the statement is as follows:
Destruction of life, property and community in Pesalai, on December 23rd 2005
1. Claymore attack
On
Friday December 23rd, at 1.30 pm, the second vehicle of the three
vehicles carrying Sri Lankan Navy sailors back to their base in
Talaimannar was hit by a claymore mine. The attack occurred in Pesalai
when the bus was passing through the “Hundred House Schemeâ€. The Sri
Lankan Navy camp in Talaimannar is located about two kilometres from
this housing scheme. Thirteen soldiers died in the attack and many more
were wounded.
2.
Retaliation Uninjured soldiers in the other two vehicles immediately
started spraying bullets towards the housing scheme. Panicky occupants
of the houses in the “Hundred Housing Scheme†started to flee in all
directions. Following account is based on the statement given to us by
a family member of one of the victims and the descriptions of the
attack given by several other residents who faced the Sri Lankan Navy
revenge attack.
3. The Statement:
The fleeing
As
people started to run, Suganthy picked up her younger child aged 3, and
her husband, Fernando, picked up their older child aged 5. Fernando
told Suganthy, “Let us run and if we die, let us die togetherâ€. They
began to run.
Suganthy’s house was on the road side between the
location of where the Navy vehicle got hit by the claymore and the Navy
vehicle that was traveling a few metres ahead. Suganthy is an asthma
patient and she found it difficult to run carrying the toddler.
At this
time Suganthy saw that the couple next door was still in their home,
standing at their door steps.
This couple next door was not about to
run like everyone else. Suganthy told Fernando, “I will wait with them,
you run furtherâ€. She tore her hand off from Fernando’s and ran into
the house of Anthoniamma and Emanuel Cruz.
That was the last time
Fernando saw his wife and child. The Cruz couple, whose house at which
Suanthy took refuge, have four children, eldest of them is 14 years
old. These children had gone to another house to watch television with
their friends.
The parents, worried about what could happen to their
children did not want to run away, and they stayed in their home.
Fernando ran on and stopped about five houses further down and stayed
there. After that, no one knows what exactly happened to Suganthy, her
baby and the Cruz couple.
The beating and the sexual assault
One
woman resident states, “The fleeing people were stopped by the Sri
Lankan Navy and the women were forced to sit on the hot sand with their
face to the sand. The Navy soldiers then asked the young women crude
sexually motivated questions. They also dropped their trousers in front
of the women.
It was so unbearableâ€. The men were taken to another side
and they were all beaten. There were all together about 42 men who were
beaten. Both men and women were then forced to sit there for several
hours.
Navy men came to the house where Fernando (Suganthy’s husband)
had taken refuge with their older five year old boy. The Navy men
picked up the five year old boy by his collar and was about to beat
him.
Fernando instinctively put his arm to take the blow. The Navy men
had then turned to the father and said, “Are you so brave and strong
that you can stop us?†They then severely attacked the father. Fernando
sustained severe injuries on his arms, legs, and hips as a result of
the attack. He was unable to walk.
Refuge in the church and the missing
people Around 6.00 pm the priest from the village church arrived and
rescued all of the residents sitting on the sand and took them to the
church. The Navy did not release nine men. When the villagers arrived
at the church they realized that several people were missing.
Everyone
thought the missing people would have run further and took refuge in
the adjacent villages. The church priest searched for the missing
people in the other villages, found some of them and brought them back
to the church. Suganthy, her baby and the Cruz couple was still
missing.
Suganthy’s relatives looked among the injured civilians
admitted to the hospital for the missing four people. There they saw a
pregnant mother who was hit in the stomach with a gun by the Navy men.
The nine men
On
the second day, Saturday December 24th, the Bishop of Mannar (Bishop
Rayappu Joseph), talked to the Navy and got the nine detained men
released. It was around 12.00 pm on Saturday when they were released.
Residents said those nine men, when they returned, did not look like
they were humans, they were attacked so severely, their skulls were
broken, their hands and legs were broken. The state in which they came
back was beyond belief.
Search for the four people
On
Saturday, no one was allowed to go back into the village. The Navy
however, allowed the Assistant Government Agent (AGA) for the district
to go through the village but she was not allowed to go inside any
houses. The Navy stopped them from stepping off of the road.
The Navy
only allowed the AGA to go down the road to the adjacent villages to
look for the missing people. The AGA looked through the other villages
and came back and said the four missing people were not to be found.
The residents encouraged the AGA to ask for permission from the Navy to
go inside houses to look for the missing people. The AGA took three
more of her officials and went to look in the houses. Those who came
described what they saw as follows, “It’s hard to describe what we’ve
seen, it’s really cruel.
There is a lot of blood that has run from
inside a house, outside, and down the front steps of the house. The
verandah is covered in blood. Because there was so much blood, we
couldn’t step into the house.
The blood on the steps is still there.
We
found the hands of a small child just outside the house and a chunk of
flesh inside the house among the ashesâ€.
Among the burnt remains
Everyone
by now realized that the four people are no more. The Navy did not
allow anyone into the houses for sometime and they must have cleared
out the place during that time. They have just missed to remove the
child’s hand and the chunk of flesh that the AGA and her three
officials saw on Saturday.
The third day, Sunday December 25th, which
was Christmas day, the Sri Lankan Navy pulled back, and allowed the
people to go to their homes. Fernando was the first one to be there
with his younger brother. The others soon joined him.
The ashes in the
house were still there. The hand and the chunk of flesh had been
removed. They could see that some attempt had been made to wash up the
blood. They searched among the ashes.
Fernando immediately recognized
the green skirt that his wife was wearing. It was half burnt. In one
area there was dried blood in a puddle, which the Bishop took pictures
of. Only the Bishop was allowed to take a camera.
They found Suganthy’s
national ID (Identity Card), her army ID, and her bank account book as
she must have run with her purse and these things were in her purse.
Her homeowner’s identity card was also there.
They submitted all of
these things to the police. The National ID of Emanuel Cruz was also
there.
Theft and burning
The
people were also saying that there had been some theft. The Navy
actually stole jewels from the women and there was 25,000 Rupees
missing from one home. About seven houses had been burnt badly.
Furniture and mattresses were heaped in these houses and were set
alight. They completely burnt one of the large shops in the village.
Monday
By
Monday, December 26th, the entire village had collected the remains of
their belongings and left the village. Fernando was also admitted to
the hospital on Monday. On Tuesday, the family members of Fernando took
some offerings to the house, as part of the funeral ritual. They placed
the food at the steps and within two minutes of doing this, the Navy
men were there.
The family members felt threatened. People were
absolutely scared at the time of the incident. On the second or third
day after the incident the Navy was still carrying out its search
operations and the entire village was in a state of fear.
4. The Inquiry
On
Sunday, December 25th, two officials from the Sri Lanka Monitoring
Mission (SLMM), the Bishop of Mannar Rev. Rayappu Joseph, and Rev. Fr.
Wincent Parick, the parish priest from the church where resident took
refuge, visited the house where the burnt human remains were found.
Mannar Police were given the job of conducting investigations.
It
is revealing to note that none of the people who faced the Sri Lankan
Navy attack on December 23rd expect anything to come out of the police
investigations.
Dr N Malathy (NESOHR Secretary)
SiberNews
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