Facebook icon
Twitter icon
e-mail icon

Our children were killed by the Army - Tamil mothers testify

Two Tamil women have testified that their children were shot and killed by the Sri Lankan Army, as the Presidential Commission to Investigate into Complaints Regarding Missing Persons (PCICMP) began to collect testimonies from Vavuniya on Sunday.

Uthayan reports the two mothers describing to the Commission how their children failed to return home from a visit to the Chettikulam hospital, and were shot dead near an army camp three days later.


“We were scared because we were under army control, but we couldn’t search for them at night,” the women said.

When the mothers tried to file a police complaint the day after the disappearance, they were told that their children had probably gone somewhere of their own accord, and to return to file a complaint in three days.

The following day the women accompanied by their village people went to inquire after their children at an army camp in Vaarikuttiyoor. They were intercepted near the camp and questioned by soldiers, who sent them away saying “your children are here, they will come.”

“The next morning, our children were shot dead and left on the streets of Vaarikuttiyoor,” the mothers testified.

A court case looking into the shootings was launched and an investigation carried out but no soldiers were summoned to court or brought to justice.

Uthayan reports that 33 people attended the session on Sunday to give testimonies, and a further 36 people registered with the commission as new witnesses.

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

For more ways to donate visit https://donate.tamilguardian.com.