STF fire on demonstration - 5 killed, 15 wounded
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 October 2002, 18:06 GMT]
Five civilians were killed and fifteen were wounded
when commandos of the Special Task Force, an elite
wing of the Sri Lankan armed forces, opened fire on a
public protest at Kanjirankudah, 84 kilometres south
of Batticaloa, around 6.30 p.m. Wednesday. The
shooting followed tension in Tamil areas in Sri
Lanka’s southeastern coast after word spread that two
members of the Liberation Tigers were severely
assaulted by the STF and had been admitted to
hospital.
The bodies of several civilians could not be recovered
from the scene of the shooting until late, sources
said.
The head of the LTTE’s political division for the
Pottuvil area, Mr. M. Visuvanathan and a Tiger
activist, Mr. Christy Rajah were travelling in a
tractor when some commandos of the STF stopped them at
the Kanjirankudah camp, which is by the main road on
the island’s southeastern coast around 10.30 a.m.
Wednesday morning. The commandos had started
assaulting the driver and Mr. Rajah when they had got
down from the tractor to find out why they had been
stopped.
Mr. Visuvanathan had then intervened and informed the
STF personnel who were assaulting them that he was an
LTTE official and that they were transporting some
material for constructing a memorial.
The STF commandos told him that they knew he was from
the LTTE and that is why they were assaulting the
driver and Mr. Rajah, according to Mr. Visuvanathan .
Thereafter they had severely beaten him up too with
the handle of a mammoty.
The two LTTE members were seriously injured in the STF
assault and had to be admitted to the Thirukkovil
hospital for treatment.
Tensions ran high in the Tamil villages of the Ampara
district as word spread that the STF had assaulted
LTTE activists. Protests erupted in many places while
shops and government offices were closed early.
Later in the day about five hundred people from the
village of Vinayagapuram went in a procession to
demonstrate in front of the Kanjirankudah STF camp
against the assault.
Tensions were further exacerbated in the Vinayagapuram
area because the STF at Kanjirankudah was perceived as
the main perpetrators of the total ban on cultivation
here last year. Thousands of farmers faced ruin when
the STF barred them from entering the rice-producing
region south of Kanjirankudah after they had ploughed
and sown their fields.
A stand off developed between the people from
Vinayagapuram and the STF during the demonstration in
front of the camp.
Sources said that STF commandos had then opened fire
on the crowd, killing five and wounding fifteen.
Reports from the area earlier in the evening said that
the bodies of two civilians who were shot dead were
lying near the camp.