By Murali Vallipuranathan –

Dr. Murali Vallipuranathan

In 1990, 184 Tamil civilians were summoned to the Satturukondan army camp and were shot, hacked to death and burned with tyres. Five infants under the age of 1 and 42 minors under the age of 10 were among those killed. A Presidential Commission of Inquiry headed by a retired judge was set up and though the culprits were identified, no one has been convicted till date. No compensation was given to the affected relatives. It has been proven in various incidents in Sri Lanka that whenever genocides are committed by state terrorism against Tamils, justice is not served.

In 1985, my father was killed while travelling in a Jaffna bound bus owned by the Ceylon Transport Board from Trincomalee. 85 Tamil civilians were massacred with him in cold blood by the Special Task Force at Pankulam. In my village Thikkam in 1987, in the name of Operation Liberation, more than 30 civilians were killed. State terrorism was so prevalent that there were almost no Tamil villages where Tamils were not massacred and till date none of the victims have received justice.

Now the Sinhalese are beginning to feel the pain of the brutality of state terror when it targets the people of the South. As a result, representatives of those killed in the Easter bombings and oppressed people’s champions fighting for basic amenities and to eliminate corruption have accepted that Sri Lanka’s internal investigations will not bring justice and have begun to request an international investigation mechanism at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Tamils should not rely on the help of those who maintain secret links with the government and use this opportunity to establish an international investigative mechanism in Sri Lanka through representatives who possess sound legal knowledge, language skills and resourceful argumentative skills and with the collaboration of Southern people.

It is very important to document the killings of Tamils until the international investigation begins. In the attached video, taking as an example how the Satturukondan massacres are documented through memorials, in every village where Tamils live, tombstones with the names of innocent people killed by state terrorism should be erected and documented according to the tradition of Tamils.

Through this one day Tamils will get justice and fairness. The pressure to start an international investigation should be exerted through the countries that come forward to provide economic assistance to Sri Lanka, which has reached the stage of bankruptcy.

Only that tactic will humble the racists who say with arrogance that they will not accept any investigation outside Sri Lanka’s constitution.

*Author Dr. Murali Vallipuranathan is a visiting lecturer at the Universities of Jaffna and Colombo, a Senior Specialist of the Ministry of Health and a Council Member of the Sri Lanka Medical Association. He claims the opinion expressed in this article with social responsibility aims to improve Human Rights in Sri Lanka and in no way reflects his official positions.