SRI LANKA: TAMIL TIGERS REBELS BLAME THE GOVERNMENT FOR THE MASSACRE OF AT LEAST 26 FORMER REBELS AT A REHABILITATION CAMP

Record ID: 646589

  • Title: SRI LANKA: TAMIL TIGERS REBELS BLAME THE GOVERNMENT FOR THE MASSACRE OF AT LEAST 26 FORMER REBELS AT A REHABILITATION CAMP
  • Date: 26th October 2000
  • Summary: BINDUNUWEWA, SRI LANKA (OCTOBER 26, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV OF DESTROYED PRISON CAMP 0.05 2. CU/SV BURNT WOOD/DAMAGED BUILDING (2 SHOTS) 0.16 3. SLV SOLDIER WITH GUN 0.24 4. SLV SOLDIER WALKING 0.28 5. SLV OF THE DESTROYED CAMP (2 SHOTS) 0.37 6. SV EXTERIOR OF HOSPITAL 0.46 7. SV NURSES SPEAKING TO DOCTOR 0.53 8. MCU (English) E.A. VIJAYRATNE, DOCTOR SAYING: "There are eighteen bodies in our mortuary, thirteen bodies are burnt and five bodies have cutting injuries" 1.05 9. SLV EXTERIOR OF POLICE STATION 1.10 10. MCU (English) SENIOR SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE LAKSHMAN SENEVIRATNE SAYING: "The detainees had attacked villagers with bricks and stones and clubs and all... Then the villagers have come in and there was an attack on the detainees and as as a result a few were killed and some were injured" 1.33 11. SV OF POLICE SPEAKING TO OFFICIALS 1.36 12. MCU (English) SENIOR SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE LAKSHMAN SENEVIRATNE SAYING: "Police are conducting an investigation into this matter under the directive of the... And we were able to arrest more than 250 suspects by now. And they will be produced before the Magistrate soon" 1.55 13. SLV OF DESTROYED PRISON 2.02 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 10th November 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BINDUNUWEWA, SRI LANKA
  • Country: Sri Lanka
  • Reuters ID: LVA1P331VRKVSM88CVAYVWNRIQLK
  • Story Text: Tamil Tiger rebels on Friday (October 27, 2000) blamed
    the government for the massacre of at least 26 former rebels
    at a rehabilitation camp in central Sri Lanka.

    "The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) accuses the
    government of (President) Chandrika Kumaratunga of being
    responsible for the gruesome killing," the LTTE said in a
    statement seen on a pro-rebel website.



    The Sri Lankan government is struggling to explain the
    massacre of 26 former Tamil rebels, including child soldiers,
    at a Sri Lankan rehabilitation camp on Wednesday (October 25,
    2000).

    The military sealed off the Bindunuwewa camp and threw a
    news blackout over the massacre after 26 inmates including at
    least two child soldiers were hacked and burned to death by a
    machete-wielding mob on Wednesday.

    Fourteen seriously injured survivors were moved from a
    government hospital to an army camp.

    Two inmates who escaped unhurt were brought under tight
    police escort to the morgue at the nearby town of Diyatalawa,
    some 200 km (140 miles) east of Colombo, to identify the dead.

    Nestled in the mountains of central Sri Lanka, the
    Bindunuwewa camp was intended as a showpiece for the outside
    world where former rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
    Eelam (LTTE) were rehabilitated rather than punished.

    The camp gained renown for its work with child soldiers,
    particularly after the LTTE was castigated abroad for using
    children as young as 10 years old in their battle for a
    separate state for minority Tamils.

    On Thursday (October 26) the compound was a scene of
    complete devastation. Machete gashes in the tin walls revealed
    blackened strips of clothing and iron bunk beds mangled as
    their occupants were clubbed to death.

    Decorations for Thursday's Hindu festival Diwali rustled
    gently in the cool mountain air over shattered pictures of
    deities of Hinduism, the religion of most of the island's
    Tamils.

    In what was widely seen as a damage limitation exercise,
    police arrested more than 250 majority Sinhalese in villages
    around the camp, blaming them for the massacre.

    "Police are conducting an investigation into this
    matter, and we were able to arrest more than 250 suspects by
    now and they will be produced before the Magistrate shortly",
    said Senior Superintendent of Police Lakshman Seneviratne.

    But the villagers said they knew nothing of the events
    that led to the massacre.

    President Chandrika Kumaratunga has ordered two high
    level probes into the massacre.

    Kumaratunga has said "outside forces" were probably
    behind the attack, statements which brought a chorus of
    protests from Tamil groups.

    The killing revived memories past ethnic bloodletting
    between the two groups, particularly the slaughter of more
    than 50 Tamil prisoners at Colombo's main Welikada jail by
    Sinhala inmates in 1983.

    That massacre took place during anti-Tamil riots which
    plunged the country into the all-out war that has claimed over
    60,000 lives.
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