Today marks the 15th anniversary of the massacre of 53 school girls by the Sri Lankan Air Force.
Image courtesy of Action Contre la Faim (ACF) On this day 15 years ago, Sri Lankan security forces summarily executed 17 aid workers from the French NGO, Action la Contre Faim (ACF), in Muttur, Trincomalee. The killings, which have since been dubbed as the 'Muttur massacre', took place at the organisation's compund where the ACF team were based as they provided humanitarian assistance to the survivors of the catastrophic tsunami in 2004. The bodies of 15 aid workers were found lying face down with bullet wounds to their heads and necks, two days after the massacre. On August 8, two more...
On this day 32 years ago, up to 64 Tamil civilians were killed by the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Valvettithurai in a massacre that was termed “India’s My Lai”. The massacre, which saw dozens killed, came on the background of escalating violence and rights abuses committed by Indian forces across the Tamil homeland. As Tamil militant groups continued hostilities with the IPKF, the Indian forces imposed a curfew on August 2, 1989, following an ambush attack. Indian soldiers then embarked on a systematic killing spree in Valvettithurai. Many in the town were blocked from receiving...
The United States says that all Sri Lankan soldiers continue to be fully vetted for involvement in human rights abuses before being allowed to train in the country. Recent appointments however point to holes in the vetting process and raise questions from survivors.
Today marks 20 years since a team of 14 LTTE commandos infiltrated and attacked the Sri Lankan Air Force Base in Katunayake, destroying several aircraft and causing over US$500 million worth of damage without a single civilian fatality. Remnants of the Sri Lankan military jets that were destroyed in the raid. The assault, launched to mark 18 years since the Black July pogrom, came on the back of a series of disastrous military setbacks for Sri Lanka, lurching then-president Chandrika Kumaratunga's government further into crisis. Read more about the operation in this extract from Anton...
Today marks thirty-eight years since the horrors of the anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983, when thousands of Tamils were killed by Sinhala mobs backed by the then UNP government and state forces.
On this week 22 years ago, Sri Lankan soldiers burst into the home of Ida Camerlitta, a 21-year-old Tamil woman, in Mannar. They gang raped her and shot her dead, in what was yet another example of horrific crimes committed by the military. To this day, the soldiers responsible for her rape and killing continue to roam free. On the 12 th of July 1999, armed Sri Lankan soldiers stormed into Ida Camerlitta’s home in Pallimunai. Her whole family, including her mother, were inside at the time. The soldiers beat and tied up some of those who were inside the home. They then proceeded to rape Ida, before shooting her dead. Her post-mortem revealed 18 injuries across her body, including injuries from sexual violence and bite wounds on her breasts and lips. She had been stabbed in the abdomen and then shot through her genitals.
21 Black Tiger elite commandos who took part in the raid on a Sri Lankan airbase in Anuradhapura, 2007 On July 5, Eelam Tamils across the world remember and mourn the sacrifices made by the LTTE's elite women and men, the Black Tigers. “Karumpuli Naal” marks the sacrifice made by the first Black Tiger, Captain Miller, or Vallipuram Vasanthan, 34 years ago.
Professor Lukman Thalib can still vividly remember that day his home was raided. As the head of the Department of Public Health at Qatar University and a member of the country’s Scientific Committee against Covid-19, the highly respected Australian public health professor was chairing a meeting on Zoom, when he heard his wife screaming downstairs. “I came down and there were 4 to 5 people in plain clothes inside my house,” he says. “It was as though they took over my house… We were terrified.” That evening, 27 July 2020, marked the beginning of an ordeal that spread across Qatar, Australia...
An Israeli weapons manufacturer announced that the Sri Lankan military has signed a new US$50 million contract this week, in a move that will see Colombo’s infamous Kfir bomber jets revamped and upgraded. Kfir jets, which have been extensively used by the Sri Lankan Air Force to carry out bombing raids across the North-East, have killed thousands of Tamils throughout the years. The use of the aircraft became so prevalent that for Tamils the name Kfir, Hebrew for "Lion Cub", became synonymous with all the aircraft used by the Sri Lankan military during attacks on the Tamil homeland.