Civilians massacre in Trinco

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 October 2000, 16:26 GMT]
Reports are emerging from Eastern Trincomalee about a massacre of seven Tamil civilians, including a woman by members of Home Guards, a militia group operating with the Sri Lankan security forces, at Poomaraththadichenai, a remote hamlet in Mutur, on Monday evening.

Sources said the farmers who were working in a paddy-field were abducted and hacked to death by Sinhala Home Guards. Initial reports said they were shot dead at the paddy-field.

Villagers contacted by TamilNet sources said the militiamen were retaliating to an attack by suspected members of the Liberation Tigers at Seruvilla on Monday morning in which a number of their colleagues were killed.

The victims were identified as:

Nallathamby Arulanantham,17 C.Nallathamby,57 T.Kalirasa,35 V.Somasunderam,56 T.Kanakaratnam,57 S.Rasan,37 Krishnapillai Thayaoathy,32 (woman)

In a separate incident a Tamil youth was shot and killed by Sri Lanka Army soldiers at Siththandymadu Aaru, 25 km north west off Batticaloa town around 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Nallretnam Nallarasa was working in a paddy field when soldiers lying in ambush opened fire, killing him on the spot said sources.

The youth's body was recovered by his relatives. The body will be handed to Chenkaladi hospital Thursday for a post-mortem, the sources said.