Indian War Crimes in Sri Lanka: IPKF Massacre of Tamil Doctors and Nurses inside Jaffna Hospital
Posted on February 2nd, 2014
Shenali D Waduge
“This massacres is worse than My Lai. Then American troops simply ran amok. In the Sri Lankan village, the Indians seem to have been more systematic; the victims being forced to lie down, and then shot in the back’. This was the editorial of the UK Daily Telegraph in August 1989 describing IPKF massacre of over 50 Tamil civilians in Velvettiturai. We really do not know how many Tamil civilians the Indian Army killed in 3 ½ years of occupation in Sri Lanka. However, more and more we are beginning to realize that the emphasis of the last 4 months is with ulterior motive. We now realize how far India wishes to keep buried its massacres of Tamil civilians and an investigation into Sri Lanka’s conflict whether it is done locally or internationally will definitely unearth the thousands of Tamils that the Indian Government wish to keep buried. We recall President Rajapakse’s advice that people in glass houses should not throw stones for in raising false flags against Sri Lanka, India’s own crimes are now resurfacing and how can India atone for the heinous manner of killing Doctors and Nurses inside a hospital. When a Tamil doctor coming down the stairs with stethoscope in hand says ‘doctor’ – does he deserve to be shot? When ICRC, media and other human rights organizations were denied to enter the North, the same sources making guestimates are welcome to quote India’s massacres in Sri Lanka.
Deepavali or Diwali is auspicious to Hindus. It is celebrated in both India and Sri Lanka.
It was on Deepavali day – 21st October 1987 just 3 months after landing in Sri Lanka that the IPKF went on a killing spree not against the LTTE but against doctors, nurses, attendants, patients and members of public. The victims of the massacre included three leading medical specialists at that time, Dr.A.Sivapathasuntharam, Dr.K.Parimelalahar and Dr.K.Ganesharatnam, three nurses and fifteen other employees. The dead included an infant and other children. Over 70 bodies were left lying in the mortuary. The killings went from 21st Oct 11a.m. to 22nd October 11a.m with Dr. Sivapathasuntharam who had unexpectedly come to the hospital being shot and killed while helping an injured worker.
At about 8:30 a.m., Dr. Sivapathasundaram, the Paediatrician, came walking along the corridor with 3 nurses. He had convinced them that they should identify themselves and surrender. They were walking with their hands up shouting: “We surrender, we are innocent doctors and nurses.”
Dr. Sivapathasundaram was gunned down point blank and the nurses injured. He was a man who had come to save the lives of the children and neonates marooned in the hospital. His dedication was replied with violence and death in the hands of this army from a country that called itself the champion of peace and nonviolence.
The OPD building was shelled by the IPKF on 21st October at 11:30a.m, the shell that fell into Ward 8 killed 7 people.
The IPKF burnt all the dead bodies.
“An infant and few other children also became the victims of the IPKF when they made noise, watching these horrors. Struck by a heart attack an aged civlian died died singing the “sivapuraaNam” Barrels and barrels of bullets were spent on innocent patients who tried to seek help. They did the same to the children and the aged who asked for water.”
“The Indian Army came firing into the Radiology Block and fired indiscriminately at this whole mass of people huddled together. We saw patients dying. We lay there without moving a finger pretending to be dead. We were wondering all the time whether we would be burnt or shot when the bodies of the dead were collected”
“The Indian Army came firing into the Radiology Block and fired indiscriminately at this whole mass of people huddled together. We saw patients dying. We lay there without moving a finger pretending to be dead. We were wondering all the time whether we would be burnt or shot when the bodies of the dead were collected”.
Has India concerned about the ‘dignity and self-respect’ of the Tamils and concerned about hurting Tamil sentiment not forgotten how it broke every international humanitarian law in the book!
Curfews were declared often throughout 3 weeks imposed within half an hour giving very little chance for people to gather provisions. Tamils may also like to recall some of these times for in galvanizing themselves towards India thinking India will help get Eelam for them with the support of the West must realize that once that Eelam is given it is unlikely to be in the hands of Sri Lankan Tamils or it will most probably be in the hands of a Sri Lankan puppet leader ready to do what India tells and India does what the West tells.
India now telling Sri Lanka that it is concerned about the last stages of the war may like to recall that during IPKF rule not a single media personnel, ICRC or a single human rights worker was allowed into the North. So much for witnesses other than the victims themselves. The last phase in Sri Lanka however had scores of witnesses though none of them reported what those reporting from overseas are imagining and we are not ready to accept accounts by those making guestimates from pro-LTTE sources and those who have been paid to say what they say.
Nevertheless, the point in question is that India spearheading 2 Resolutions against Sri Lanka has totally ignored its crimes against Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s leaders to maintain cordial relations may not wish to remind India of its war crimes killing civilians, raping Tamil women and plundering homes but we think that India’s crimes must now come out.
If Sri Lanka is subject to repeated Resolutions on account of one word – ACCOUNTABILITY we think that ACCOUNTABILITY cannot omit India’s involvement both covert and overt and the world needs to know the exact nature of India’s role in the prevalence of terrorism throughout 3 decades. With India pushing for a 3rd Resolution now shifting to post-war and a proposed Sri Lanka-led International Investigation it appears India is getting cold feet.
Nevertheless, we need to put on record how LTTE emerged, where LTTE was initially trained and answers to all that leads us to nowhere else but India.
Shenali D Waduge
February 2nd, 2014 at 4:12 pm
Assume Endia will vote against us and expose all these, it they are true. Not sure whether these are more “Lies by Tamils” though.
February 2nd, 2014 at 4:19 pm
Many Indian Government leaders seem to be at the mercy of the US establishment. As long as India remains a semi-puppet regime of the USA, those Indian leaders guilty of war crimes in Sri Lanka, could be protected by the US and UK, simply by demanding an investigation only into the final battle period of a few weeks with fabricated evidence, and shut out the rest of the conflict to hide the real crimes committed by India and the LTTE leaders now taking refuge in the West. If an investigation should be launched, then,
1. India should be investigated for training terrorists on Indian soil, arming them funding and releasing them on Sri Lanka.
2. India should be investigated for the unbelievable level of crimes committed by the IPKF forces against the Northern Tamils.
3. Norway should be investigated for supporting LTTE in the structural genocide of Sinhalese and Muslims in the North and East, in an effort to create a mono-ethnic Tamil region. LTTE killed or evicted Tamils from the North and the non-Tamil regions between the North and East, in order to try and create a contiguous mono-ethnic Tamil Region, by colonising only with Tamils from South India and other regions in Sri Lanka..
4. LTTE leaders living overseas, should be investigated for many, many, many crimes committed over three decades, including child soldiers, grabbing of Muslim and Sinhala homes and handing them over to Mahavir Tamil families etc etc
5. Canada should be investigated for funding the Central bank and other bombings
6. UK and Norway should be investigated for harbouring LTTE terrorist leaders.
Unfortunately, all this would end up as wishful thinking as what is “just” in this world is what is defined by militarily powerful nations. But fortunately, past events recorded over the 2600 period of documented history indicates, Sri Lanka was and will be protected by supernatural forces and those that commit crimes against Sri Lanka would eventually face defeat and other consequences. Let justice prevail over evil.
February 2nd, 2014 at 4:24 pm
Sorry, item 3 above should read as “..LTTE killed or evicted Sinhalese, Muslims and non-complying Tamils (instead of Tamils) from the North and the non-Tamil regions between North and East….”
February 2nd, 2014 at 4:34 pm
” We really do not know how many Tamil civilians the Indian Army killed in 3 ½ years of occupation in Sri Lanka. However, more and more we are beginning to realize that the emphasis of the last 4 months is with ulterior motive. We now realize how far India wishes to keep buried its massacres of Tamil civilians and an investigation into Sri Lanka’s conflict whether it is done locally or internationally will definitely unearth the thousands of Tamils that the Indian Government wish to keep buried.”
An excellent point that I have forgotten. Indian soldiers engaged in some of the most brutal attacks on the Tamil Tigers yet that has been buried by both India and the Tamil Diaspora. Now what is being hammered home is that the only killers of Tamils are the Sinhalese and the Rajapakse government. I will make it my crusade to point this issue out on any Sri Lankan article that appears in the Times of India, the voice of India.
February 3rd, 2014 at 2:37 am
Just give a random figure like 40,000
February 3rd, 2014 at 3:25 am
This is FANTASTIC.
SL should COPY this Saudi law except the king part.
“Actions that threaten Saudi Arabia’s unity, disturb public order, or defame the reputation of the state or the king – will be considered acts of terrorism under a new counterterrorism law which has come into force in the gulf kingdom.
The new legislature was ratified by King Abdullah on Sunday after being approved by the Cabinet in December, following the initial proposal by the Interior Ministry and advisory Shura Council.
It defines terrorism as “any act carried out by an offender … intended to disturb the public order…to shake the security of society… stability of the state… expose its national unity to danger… suspend the basic law of governance or some of its articles,” according to its text as cited by Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Terrorists can also be considered those individuals who “insult the reputation of the state or its position… inflict damage upon one of its public utilities or its natural resources,” or those who attempt to force “governmental authority to carry out or prevent it from carrying out an action, or to threaten to carry out acts that lead to the named purposes or incite [these acts].”
The legislation, made up of 40 clauses, allows the security forces to arrest and detain suspects for up to six months with the possibility to extend the confinement for another six months. Suspects are allowed to be held incommunicado for 90 days without the presence of their lawyer during the initial questioning.”
– RT
February 3rd, 2014 at 7:09 am
Shenali,
Thank you so much for bringing out this forgotten factor of IPKF occupation of the North, so important at this point in time.
————
Crimes perpetrated by the IPKF had been quite forgotten ! That the IPKF occupied the North for THREE AND A HALF YEARS was also conveniently forgotten. Why ? to protect India ? Why was India following such ruthless procedures after ditching the Panchaseela approach of PM Jawaharlal Nehru after Independence there in 1945 ?
India’s sovereignty as well as Sri Lankan sovereignty are both in jeopardy when World Wars and Cold Wars of the world happen. As such, India and Lanka ought sign a Peace Pact not to get involved in either WWs or Cold Wars, and to stay strictly Non-aligned – this would be a long lasting Peace Treaty between the two countries, bringing back PM Nehru’s life supportive Panchaseela Rule
with neighboring countries.
All Crimes against Tamils by various sources, crimes against Tamils by the LTTE, plus the Tsunami caused deaths in the North etc. plus also the grievances about the Tamil Caste problems have been lumped together and pasted on the PRESENT GoSL by various foreign sources and the Tamil Diaspora when the present leaders & GoSL had nothing to do with those crimes. Also, past leaders of Lanka were forced into certain positions against their better judgment e.g. imposition of the 13-A during JRJs time.
No Tamil Eelam formed to solve Tamil Problems or Conversions to other religions or running abroad will solve the Tamil Problems. Such Problems can only be solved by facing squarely such problems which are almost all common to all of Sri Lanka for other human beings there too, except perhaps for the Tamil Caste problem which is virtually non-existing in Lanka, as unlike in India, the Constitution and the laws of the land of Lanka do not recognize Caste. In India, Babasahib Ambedkar (a Buddhist of Dalit origin) who wrote the Indian Constitution, at least managed to make discrimination on grounds of Caste, illegal. Unfortunately, this rule is not widely adhered to. Tamil Nadu local government itself still employs some 95,000 ‘night soil carriers’, a caste bound occupation. This particular problem will have to be addressed in India itself. We are full of hope that the
possible new Modi govt’s 100 new cities will bring about radical change to Indian society and social peace reigns there.
The hundreds of thousands of relatively new entrants into Lanka from Tamil Nadu, who have come ILLEGALLY have the so called Caste bound mentality, and so do the Tamil tea estate workers, who have the same insular nature and complexes brought on by Caste. These are minor SELF CREATED problems of the Tamil community, and not grounds for creating Eelam.
All illegal migrants into Lanka ought to deported. In Lanka, the SAARC rule of ‘visa on entry’ must be closed, as done by India.
February 3rd, 2014 at 8:13 am
A country of Rapists, Terrorists,Murderers and prostitutes That is India we are talking about. There was an article” Largest Toilet in the world” Which country the answer is INDIA. So to me the shitest country in the world is India and most hated country for me too is India because what they did to us and what they are doing to us now.
All the countries in the world except few are all stooges of white hypocrits. Every leader gets sick they go to lick the white man ass. I do not know why? Our leaders dont do that that’s why they hate us but we too have some leaders like Ranil,Sampathan,Magalaya,Chandrika and few others who likes the smell of the white man. India too now going behind the white man thinking that they can be a super power but they do not know the truth about the wild west Americans. They suck the blood out of the Indians and throw them to garbage like they were doing to other countriesd you wait and see.
February 4th, 2014 at 12:50 am
It looks as if there is nothing else for Shenali to write. They got what they deserved, lady. Those doctors and nurses may have treated those who fought against the javans and tamil population supported the ltte to fight. Indians being not Buddhist took revenge. That is the long and short of it. No need to shed tears for an ungrateful set of people.
February 4th, 2014 at 4:23 am
Aloy,
Of course they got JUST DESSERTS. These doctors were treating Tamil tigers.
But now the two are in BED AGAIN! This is why we have to REMIND these things.