I visited Batticaloa and Valaichchenai on the 9th November 2006, along with Udaya Kalupathirana from INFORM and other colleagues from Suriya Women’s Development centre in Batticaloa.
The immediate reason for our visit were reports about the shelling of internally displaced persons in Kathiraveli, Vakarai on November 8, 2006, which had resulted in the deaths of over 40 persons and the displacement of over 500 persons to Valaichchenai.
A longer more comprehensive report will follow.
9 November 2006:
We spoke to many different individuals in both Batticaloa and Valaichchenai regarding the situation. We visited the Hospitals at Batticaloa and Valaichchenai, and two camps for IDPS from Vakarai located at the Vinayagapuram Maha Vidyalaya grounds and on the premises of the Ceylon Pentecostal Mission in Valaichchenai.
While in Batticaloa, we received a request from Valaichchenai from the family members of a woman from Kathiraveli who had died the previous night to obtain permission for them to take the body back to Kathiraveli since her husband, mother and other family members were there. We passed this request on to the ICRC in Batticaloa, which was able to facilitate the process.
On November 9, UNICEF was granted permission to enter Vakarai, taking along with them Mr. Alan Rock, the envoy of the UN Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict, for a limited time period of three hours. The SLMM and ICRC delegates accompanied them. The people of Kathiraveli sat across the road and prevented their departure for a while saying that the shelling would start immediately the foreigners had left the area.
Description of the incident as narrated by survivors:
At about 11.30 a.m. on November 8, there was firing of at least three multi-barrel rocket shells. One of them fell on Vigneswara Maha Vidyalaya which had been used by IDPs as a camp since August 2006. Others fell on the road. Cadjans caught fire. People were killed and wounded. Those who could do so, tried to take the wounded to the army point at Mankerny to seek help. Others remained with the dead and seriously wounded. It took until 4 p.m. for the first ambulance to reach them. By that time some more people had died. About 60 persons were warded at Valaichchenai Hospital, another 35 were sent to Batticaloa. One woman died on the way.
There is a distance of about fifty kilometers from Valaichchenai to Vakarai. The distance from Valaichchenai to Mankerny can be covered in about 20 minutes, and the distance from Mankerny to Vakarai in about 30 minutes.
As narrated by those who tried to intervene:
The news of the shelling and civilian casualties reached Valaichchenai by at least 2 in the afternoon of November 8. However, the ambulances and other vehicles were not allowed to pass until 4 p.m. Only the ICRC and SLMM were granted permission by the security forces to cross the check point and enter Vakarai .
Context:
On October 6, there was a big clash between the LTTE and the security forces, when members of the Karuna faction attacked an LTTE camp in Panichankerny, near Mankerny. Since then the situation has been tense.
On October 30, there was an attack by the LTTE on the checkpoints in Mankerny and Kajuwatta. Since then UN agencies had not been able to access the area. The Divisional Secretariat had not been granted access since November 1. The army informed them that there was still fighting going on.
On November 7, according to figures at the Batticaloa GA’s office, there were 34,173
IDPs in Vakarai (Koralai Pattu North) and 6,463 IDPs in Valaichchenai (Koralai Pattu).
Of them, almost 11,000 are those displaced from Trincomalee District, with the numbers increasing dramatically from August 2006. In Valaichchenai, the majority of IDPs had been absorbed into the families of friends and relatives.
Since August 11, there had been a food convoy sent to Vakarai DS area once in two weeks with 80 metric tones of food. There was reluctance to have a buffer stock in place due to fears of it being taken over by the LTTE. There had been no food sent to Vakarai since October 31.
There was a severe shortage of drinking water. The ICRC was taking in a limited number of bowsers daily. There had been no delivery of water since November 1.
Batticaloa Hospital:
There were over 70 persons admitted with injuries due to the shelling in Kathiraveli as far as we could ascertain. Most of them were in the surgical wards; there were at least 12 boys and 20 girls among them, including about 10 children under 10 years old. The process of moving people from Valaichchenai to Batticaloa which had taken place on the night of the 8th had left them even more disoriented. There were fewer family members with them due to the distance from Valaichchenai to Batticaloa. There were several children who did not seem to have any adult taking care of them. One adolescent boy had died during the transport from Valaichchenai to Batticaloa; his body was in the mortuary at the time of our visit.
There seemed to be good attention being paid to the medical and other needs of the patients by the hospital authorities and by some NGOs.
While we were visiting the hospital at noon visiting hours, we were told by some distraught family members that four young men who had come to the Hospital to visit patients had been taken into custody by the army within the hospital premises. We were unable to investigate this further. We will follow this up.
Valaichchenai Hospital:
There were no injured persons from Kathiraveli here. The body of Ms. Thangamalar (28), who had died during the transport from Mankerny to Valaichchenai had been taken back to Kathiraveli with the assistance of the SLRC, ICRC and army.
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Vinayagapuram School:
The figures for the camp showed that 508 persons had been resident there since the date the camp was opened on August 8, 2006 and that a further 191 persons had come into the camp on the previous day.
The IDPs were housed in tin and cadjan sheds on the sandy soil of the school grounds of Vinayagapuram Vidyalaya, about 10 minutes away from the town. A perimeter fence had been erected but the bathing spaces and toilets were located outside the fence. There was no police post anywhere close by. Several NGOs were working in the camp, among the ESCO, Survivors Associated and UMCOR were mentioned. The camp site was crowded an
The 138 families (508 persons) who had arrived in August were registered as IDPs and were receiving rations and were accommodated in small but separate units. They also cooked as separate household units.
The IDPs who had arrived on the 8th (191) were not yet registered and it seemed there was some confusion regarding this issue. They had spent the night at Vinayagapuram in accommodation which was being prepared for other Vakarai IDPs presently living at the CPM camp. This was a long room which had not yet been partitioned. They had received cooked food up to lunch on the 9th and the GS (Grama sevaka-Village officer) in charge of the camp said this would continue until the confusion regarding their final location was resolved. The exact population of the camp could not be assessed because of constant movement of people.
Several persons spoke to us regarding the security issues at the camp. Both the LTTE and the Karuna group seemed to be active in the area. During our visit, we were told that on November 2, a group of armed men had entered the camp and walked around trying to take away boys. Mothers who tried to prevent this were treated roughly, pushed and beaten. Two boys were taken away, but escaped and returned. The camp residents told us that during the day it was relatively safe because of the presence of the GS and of other NGO workers. But after 6, when all of these individuals had left the camp, they feel left at the mercy of any one of the two armed groups who decide to harass them on that evening. However, they felt that the presence of the Police or the army in the vicinity of the camp would make them even more vulnerable to attack by.
There were six women in the camp who claimed that their husbands had been taken away by the army during the transport from Mankerny to Valaichchenai on the previous day. The names were given to us as T. Sasikumar, S. Srimurugan, Thillaikumar, P. Thineshkumar, K. Somaratnam, Y. Rajeswaran. They were seeking help to locate their husbands, and had been told that they were in the Giritale Rehabilitation Camp and may be moved to Kandy. The ICRC had been informed of this incident. We could not verify this information.
There were also over 12 persons, mostly women, who had come to Valaichchenai town for shopping on November 2, as a part of their normal routine. When they tried to return, the army refused permission. They do not know what has happened to their families and are desperate to return. They have been accommodated at Vinayagapuram camp.
Ceylon Pentecostal Mission Camp:
This camp was opened on August 18, 2006, to meet the demand for accommodation of IDPs from Vakarai area.
There are 508 families at present, and an additional 150 families had come in on November 8 and 9. There were some people who had arrived on the 9th afternoon. This was a group who had been petitioning the army and other authorities to allow them to return to Kathiraveli since their other family members were there. However, this attempt was unsuccessful and they had come to the camp. In this camp there were also some people who had come by sea from Vakarai to Valaichchenai.
This location is extremely overcrowded. However attempts to relocate these persons at Vinayagapuram Vidyalaya camp, as proposed by the DS, has failed due to the reluctance of people to go there. The primary reason given was that of insecurity.
There were many tragic stories here. One woman had left behind the dead body of her husband in Kathiraveli in order to bring her injured child to the hospital. Another injured man had been living in this camp since August and had gone back to Kathiraveli to check up on the status of his house when he was caught to the shelling. Many families had been separated because of the incident, and several persons spoke to us of their desire to return to Kathiraveli since there were family members there. However, the army was not allowing them to do so.
Critical issues:
Security:
1. The conversations we had with people in both Batticaloa and Valaichchenai made it very clear that since Wednesday November 1, there had been restrictions on access to Vakarai. Some people interpreted this as a preparatory step to the shelling of November 8. Many expressed fears that this incident would pave the way for an all-out offensive in the Vakarai area which would result in massive destruction and loss of life due to the presence of a large number of IDPs in the area. There are presently almost 35,000 IDPs and civilians from the area trapped between the LTTE-controlled areas in Vakarai and the government-controlled areas in Mankerny.
Security and humanitarian concerns of people living in the Vakarai DS Division need to be handled with care and sensitivity to ensure that it does not result in further death, destruction and alienation of Tamil civilians from the government and from the Sinhala people.
2. There is a need to undertake a serious re-assessment of the security situation in the camp at Vinayagapuram Vidyalaya in Valaichchenai.
In the months of September and October 2006, 3 persons were killed in very close proximity to the camp and other killings and abductions take place all around. While the camp is physically close to the town, a 10 minute distance away, it is located in a neighbourhood which is known to be supportive of the LTTE, according to our informants. Thus the camp residents were vulnerable to attack by LTTE looking for supporters of the Karuna faction, as well as by Karuna faction and the security forces looking for the LTTE.
Although the camp has been in this location since August and many concerns have been voiced regarding the insecurity of the residents, nothing has been done regarding relocation due to the understanding among government officials that these IDPs are ‘temporary’ and will soon return to Vakarai.
Incomplete listing of incidents of violence in and around Valaichchenaiin September and October 2006:
September:
05: 2 women killed in artillery attack by army at Verugal on Trincomalee-Batticaloa border; TKK
Subramaniam Mahendrarajah (45), lorry driver of Multi Purpose Cooperative Society Echchilampattu, Mutur East, Tamil, male, killed in bomb blast at Vaharai – Kathiraveli in Batticaloa; 2 others injured; VK
07: Kanapathipillai Satyakumaran (25), Tamil, male, shot and killed at Vinayagapuram, Batticaloa; Note saying ‘Death for traitors’ by Ellalan Padai found near the body; VK
09: Selvanayagam Suthakaran (24) and Kannappan Viji (26) of Karuvankerny, Tamil males, suspected LTTE cadre, shot and killed at Valaichenai; VK
13: Vinayagamoorthy Gunawardanamoorthy, Tamil, male, shot and killed by Army while throwing a grenade at Vinayagapuram, Valaichchenai; VK; TK
14: Daniel Vasantharajah (28), Tamil, male, shot and killed at Karuvankerny, Valaichenai; VK
16: 1 civilian shot and killed by the forces at Nasivantheevu, Valaichchenai, Batticaloa, after a shooting incident; VK
20: Mylvaganam Kokilan (23), Tamil, male, shot and killed at Kannagipuram, Valaichchenai; VK
21: Sinnathurai Rajendra Yaso (33), Tamil, female, shot and killed at Veerayadipillaiyar Veethy, Valaichchenai; VK
October:
06: 22 LTTE cadre killed in clash between LTTE and the security forces at Mankerny -Panichchankerny area in Batticaloa; VK
LTTE camp attacked by Karuna faction in Panichchankerny, near Mankerny; estimated that 40 LTTE cadre were killed and over 70 were injured; 8 members of the Karuna group were killed and 15 injured; members of the armed forces also died.
12: Body of Balasubramaniam Sudakar (23), Tamil, male, found with gunshot wounds at Vinayagapuram, Valaichchenai; he had been abducted on the previous day; VK
28: Ranjan Thevan (22), Tamil, male, shot and killed at Nasivantivu, Batticaloa; Police identified him as a member of the LTTE; VK
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