Untitled - International Commission of Jurists

The indiscriminate nature of these reprisal attacks have been generally attributed to
the isolated, tense and fearful context in which soldiers operate in the conflict areas,
prevented from associating with the civilian population and compelled to contend
with the brutal tactics of the LTTE. 180 In certain instances however, the names of the
same perpetrators emerge repeatedly in the records, thus suggesting the existence of a
small band of soldiers who are moved with official sanction from place to place in
order to carry out such attacks with the intention of causing the same amount of terror
as the LTTE. The other cases concern periodic mass killings that had occurred during
the course of the conflict in the North and East. 181
4.3.1. The Kumarapuram Case
Unlike in many other areas, the army detachment near the Kumarapuram village in
Trincomalee District had been co-existing amicably with the nearby villagers who
were of Sinhalese, Muslim and Tamil ethnicity. 182 However, tensions had arisen in the
mid-1990s following the posting of a senior army officer to that detachment. On 11
February, 1996, 24 Tamil civilians were massacred, including six women amidst and
thirteen children, ostensibly as a result of the killing of two soldiers at Dehiwatte
junction by the LTTE. Senior officers did not intervene during this reprisal massacre,
which lasted for about two hours.
Once the details of the massacre emerged, widespread public anger 183 led to the
formation of a military board of inquiry. 184 The inquiry recommended the punishment
of senior officers for their acts of culpable omission in standing idly by while the
villagers were massacred. Sixteen army personnel were arrested and an identification
parade was held. However, there were errors in the conducting of this parade. Many
of the witnesses from whom original statements were recorded were not called to
participate. Further, some accused were not summoned to participate in the line-up. 185
Subsequent to the parade, eight army personnel, seven of Sinhalese ethnicity and one
of Muslim ethnicity, were identified and remanded. However, they were released
before the non-summary inquiry commenced. Indictment was not served on the
180 Hyndman, Patricia, ‘Democracy in Peril’, Report to the Law Asia Human Rights Standing
Committee, 1985, at p. 65.
181 United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Report of the Working
Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (5-15 October 1992), E/CN4./1993/25/Add.1,
Presented to the UN Commission on Human Rights at its 50 th sessions, at p. 3. The cases examined in
this section are illustrative of systemic patterns of impunity. An exhaustive compilation of relevant
cases would be much longer. Other instances of killings, such as the reprisal killings of Tamil civilians
by Muslim home guards on 29 April, 2002 at Karapola and Muthugala resulting in the killing of 88
civilians, did not lead to anything beyond a brief inquiry.
182 University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), ‘Trincomalee District in February 1996: Focusing
on the Killiveddy Massacre,’ Information Bulletin No.10, 02.03.1996.
183 ibid. ‘We also assert here that the Sinhalese in the area (were) very much upset by the incident and
were full of sympathy for the people of Kumarapuram. Buddhist monks in Trincomalee who were
contacted had also expressed their grief. It is also noteworthy that among those who visited
Kumarapuram and consoled the people was a Buddhist monk from the area.’
184 Established on 15.02.1996 headed by Major-General E.H. Samaratunge and comprising the late
Brigadier Parami Kulatunge and Lt. Colonel Asoka Padeniya.
185 Movement for Interracial Justice and Equality, ‘Kumarapuram Massacre and Legal Proceedings,’
April 1997, at p. 2.
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