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Mullivaikkal massacre

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The Mullivaikkal massacre was the mass killing of tens of thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils in 2009 during the closing stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War, which ended in May 2009 in a tiny strip of land in Mullivaikkal, Mullaitivu.

The Sri Lankan government had designated a no-fire zone in Mullivaikkal towards the end of the war. According to the UN, between 40,000 and 70,000[1] entrapped Tamil civilians were killed by the actions of government forces, with the large majority of these civilian deaths being the result of indiscriminate shelling by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] During the battle, government forces heavily shelled the area, including hospitals, the UN hub, and near the Red Cross ship, while the LTTE held hostage much of the civilian population for cover, and enforced this by shooting escaping Tamil civilians.[13][14][15][16]

During the final days of the war, the army also engaged in indiscriminate executions of Tamils, civilians as well as fighters.[17] Indiscriminate massacres of civilians were carried out on 18 May 2009.[18][19]

The UN Panel Report describes how "from as early as 6 February 2009, the SLA continuously shelled within the area that became the second NFZ, from all directions, including land, air and sea. It is estimated that there were between 300,000 and 330,000 civilians in that small area. The SLA assault employed aerial bombardment, long-range artillery, howitzers and MBRLs as well as small mortars, RPGs and small arms fire, some of it fired from a close range. MBRLs when using unguided rockets are area saturation weapons and when used in densely populated areas, are indiscriminate with potential to cause large numbers of casualties.[11]

The UN Panel Report describes the actions of the LTTE, "In spite of the futility of their military situation, the LTTE not only refused to surrender, but also continued to prevent civilians from leaving the area, ensuring their continued presence as a human buffer. It forced civilians to help build military installations and fortifications or undertake other forced labour. It also intensified its practice of forced recruitment, including of children, to swell their dwindling ranks. As LTTE recruitment increased, parents actively resisted, and families took increasingly desperate measures to protect their children from recruitment. They hid their children in secret locations or forced them into early arranged marriages. LTTE cadre would beat relatives or parents, sometimes severely, if they tried to resist the recruitment. All these approaches, many of them aimed at defending the LTTE and its leadership, portrayed callousness to the desperate plight of civilians and a willingness to sacrifice their lives."[11]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Balasundaram, Nirmanusan (18 May 2019). "How the UN failed Tamil civilians in 2009". Al Jazeera.
  2. ^ "Sri Lanka justice: leaked UN document casts doubts". Channel 4. 28 July 2015. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
  3. ^ Harrison, Frances (11 October 2012). "The broken survivors of Sri Lanka's civil war". BBC. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  4. ^ "Sri Lanka: Satellite imagery of safe zone". BBC News. 24 April 2009. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  5. ^ Doucet, Lyse (13 November 2012). "UN 'failed Sri Lanka civilians', says internal probe". BBC. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  6. ^ Burke, Jason; Perera, Amantha (16 September 2015). "UN calls for Sri Lanka war crimes court to investigate atrocities". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  7. ^ "U.N. Report Urges Sri Lanka to Set Up War Crimes Tribunal". Wall Street Journal. 16 September 2015. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  8. ^ Francis, Krishan (18 May 2015). "Tamil leaders honor dead from Sri Lankan war at battle zone". Yahoo News. Associated Press. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  9. ^ Buncombe, Andrew (14 February 2009). "British envoy banned in war without witnesses". The Independent. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  10. ^ "Sri Lanka Massacred Tens of Thousands of Tamils While the World Looked Away". Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. 11 August 2015. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  11. ^ a b c "Report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka" (PDF). United Nations. November 2012. p. 28. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  12. ^ "Secretary-General's Internal Review Panel on United Nations Action in Sri Lanka" (PDF). United Nations Digital Library. United Nations. November 2012. p. 11. Retrieved 3 January 2022. The COG had prepared a casualty sheet which showed that a large majority of the civilian casualties recorded by the UN had reportedly been caused by Government fire
  13. ^ Ethirajan, Anbarasan (30 June 2019). "Gotabhaya Rajapaksa: The wartime strongman who wants to run Sri Lanka". Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  14. ^ "Sri Lanka: UN says army shelling killed civilians". BBC News. 26 April 2011. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  15. ^ Sengupta, Somini (8 February 2009). "Civilians hit with UN team in Sri Lankan 'no-fire' zone". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  16. ^ Darusman, Marzuki; Sooka, Yasmin; Ratner, Steven R. (31 March 2011). Report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka (PDF). United Nations.
  17. ^ "Sri Lanka Tamil killings 'ordered from the top'". Channel 4 News. 18 May 2010. Archived from the original on 23 March 2015.
  18. ^ Khan, Tehmoor (27 July 2011). "The Sri Lankan soldiers 'whose hearts turned to stone'". Channel 4 News.
  19. ^ "Shavendra Silva Chief of Army Staff Sri Lanka Dossier" (PDF). International Truth and Justice Project. 29 January 2019. p. 70.
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