Ilankai Tamil Sangam
Association of Tamils of Sri Lanka in the USA
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Shell Blasts Refugee Camp at Puthumurippu

5 killed, including an infant and a 2 year-old child

by K. Mylvaganam, September 3, 2008

This is not a stray event of the government forces bombing or shelling the Tamil refugees. There have been many instances before....

Aren’t the Tamils also the citizens of the same government? Isn’t it the profound duty of the government to protect and safeguard all its citizens irrespective of race, religion or creed?

The refugee camp of the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) at Puthumurippu was under artillery shelling at 4.30 p.m. on 30.08.2008. A young child, a month old infant, (see pics) two women and a man were killed on the spot. All are innocent civilians. A girl of 17 and two children 06 years and 10 month old were seriously injured. All the three were rushed to the Kilinochchi district hospital.    

Those affected in this gruesome attack are originally from Parappukadanthan in Mannar district. Due to the artillery shelling by the SLA they all moved to Kalliyadi. When the shelling followed them, they moved further to Paliyaru, then to Mullankavil and Vanneri before they finally reached Puthumurippu in the Kilinochchi district. Due to military activities Puthumurippu in sparsely populated. Unfortunately the shell fell amidst their houses. That was the cause for this disaster.

All those affected in this tragedy are related to each other. The one month old infant who was killed has still not been named. The bodies of all the people killed were buried in one grave in Konavil on the following day.

 The place of this tragedy was photographed by the doctors from the Medisin Sans Frontier (MSF), which is from France. 

02 year old Gowtham is besides his father, who also died with him. His devastated mother is weeping by their beds.

 

The unnamed 01 month old innocent baby is lying lifeless. What crime did the baby do to deserve this?

 

Those Killed are:

Those Injured:

The injured Miss Rajeswary Balasubramanium states:

Miss.B. Rajeswari, 17, lying unconscious

We are originally from Parappukadanthan in Mannar. We evacuated from there on 03.09.2007 due to shelling and went to Kalliyadi and stayed there for a short time before we shifted to Paliyaru. Again we moved to Mullankavil before coming to Vanneri. We left Vanneri only on the 21st instant and reached Puthumurippu. Here too we heard the sounds of the shelling intermittently. In our house my mother, cousin, my sister’s child and I were the only occupants at the time, when the shell exploded. I did not know as to what happened thereafter. I woke up in the hospital only. “

This is not a stray event of the government forces bombing or shelling the Tamil refugees. There have been many instances before. I may quote a few of the refugees being shelled or bombed:

Madhu Church: This holy shrine has been subject to several bombing episodes quite frequently despite of it being a well known religious and respected shrine both by the Tamils and the Sinhalese.

Shelling indiscriminately is a highly inhuman act. The army or the government for that matter does not care, as to where the shells fall. This only illustrates that their targets are not the LTTE in particular but the Tamils also in general. This is very unbecoming for a so-called “democratic” government, which has an obligation to its citizens.

In fairness to the government I must say that it showed its “humane quality” in the early 1970s and in 1989, when they were confronted by the then “Terrorists” the Jathika Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). No bombs were dropped or shells fired even on the JVP bases; let alone the Sinhalese civilians. It is obvious to everyone as to why the government does not show the same “humane” attitude towards the Tamils. One wonders whether the government considers Tamils as dispensable but not the Sinhalese. Aren’t the Tamils also the citizens of the same government? Isn’t it the profound duty of the government to protect and safeguard all its citizens irrespective of race, religion or creed?

Are we to presume from this that we the Tamils need a government of our own to provide protection for us? Isn’t it logical thinking?

K.Mylvaganam
Reporting from Vanni
kmylvaganam1974@gmail.com

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