When Tiger terrorists massacred 127 civilians in Habarana

by K.M.H.C.B. Kulatunga

As we celebrate the Sinhala and Hindu New Year with our loved ones, we walk down memory lane and recall one of the most brutal killings by LTTE terrorists during the same period of a yesteryear. The peace and harmony we now enjoy was due to the supreme sacrifices by our valiant soldiers against whom certain Western elements are attempting to level war crime allegations.

When we had been subjected to LTTE terror, none of those guardians of human rights and god fathers of democracy were there for our rescue. If not for Sri Lanka’s Security Forces, we would still be spending Sinhala and Hindu New Year with fear, without knowing when the LTTE would explode their next bomb or when the Tiger terrorists would storm into a village to butcher civilians.

At a time the UNHRC and certain countries in the West are talking about the human rights of the LTTE terrorists killed, we wish to recall one of the deadliest brutal killing by the very same set of blood-thirsty terrorists who hacked 127 civilians to death exactly 26 years ago.

As certain countries turned a Nelsonian eye on LTTE atrocities, we wish to bring the chronicle of LTTE terror into sharp focus. An awareness of the chronology of terror unleashed by the LTTE would enable the international community to understand why Sri Lanka had to embark on the humanitarian operation to protect over half a million people forcibly held by the terror outfit as a human shield.

Countries which make a big hue and cry over the human rights of terrorists killed in action when they confront a legitimate army of a sovereign state should open their eye wider and have a closer look at one of the worst atrocities against mankind by Tiger terrorists on April 17, 1987.

LTTE cadres shot dead 127 Sinhalese civilians, including 31 police and security force personnel who were travelling in three buses and two trucks to Trincomalee on that fateful day. The Tiger cadres, clad in military uniforms, stopped the vehicles and dragged out the passengers and shot them to death with automatic weapons after brutally assaulting them with clubs.

Some of the unfortunate victims of Habarana massacre

More than 70 people with serious injuries were air-lifted. The dead included many children and 12 off duty security personnel. Most of the victims were families visiting their relatives for the New Year.

A report in the Daily News of that period said:

"Over a hundred bus passengers believed to belong to all communities were killed in the worst terrorist massacre in recent months when three buses travelling along the Habarana - Trincomalee Road were stopped near Kitulotuwa between the 123rd and 129th milepost and the passengers shot dead in cold blood. A total 107 persons including women and children were reported dead on the spot.

"Tiger terrorists had stopped the buses, lined-up the passengers and mowed them down. Two of the buses were plying from Trincomalee and the other to the opposite direction. All three vehicles were private buses, some carrying passengers from Colombo to Trincomalee. The fourth vehicle, a private car, had also been stopped and the people in it killed. Casualties were moved to Habarana and some to Anuradhapura hospitals. Two helicopters and SLAF Avro were deployed to evacuate the injured."

The attack came on the seventh day of the unilateral ceasefire announced by the then UNP Government. A number of the victims were believed to be people travelling at the end of the New Year holiday.

Exactly ten days after the brutal killing in Habarana, LTTE terrorists stormed into Jayanthipura Village on April 21, 1987. The terrorists struck again inside ten days, killing at least 15 civilians - five men, five women, four young girls and a boy in the Eastern village. The LTTE gang which gunned down 126 passengers at Kituluttuwa on Good Friday the same year, was believed responsible for the pre-dawn raid on the Jayanthipura village, North of Kantalai. However, the home-guards engaged the attackers and terrorists retreated with their wounded. The troops launched a massive hunt for the killers, who were led by an area leader of the LTTE known as ‘Pulendran.’

The savage brutality and murderous nature of these attacks show the inhuman manner in which the LTTE terrorists had operated. It was also an attempt to drive away traditional Sinhala peasants from Trincomalee, Polonnaruwa and Amparai districts. These mass murders were comparable to the massacre of 150 Sinhala devotees at Anuradhapura in May 1985.

These are just two of the many brutal terror acts of the LTTE which had not shown any mercy to human lives. They not only massacred the Sinhalese and Muslims but also killed Tamils who opposed terrorism. The LTTE had done nothing but brought suffering to their own community although the terror outfit portrayed themselves as the sole representatives of the Tamils. Had the Security Forces not liberated the Tamils from the clutches of the LTTE terror, they would have still been subjected to untold privations. One cannot understand why certain Western countries are totally blind to these stark facts.

These countries and the UNHRC talks big on the accountability process! But they must keep in mind that the Government is only accountable to the people of this country and not to a few countries in the West. Hence, the Government will only meet the aspirations of the masses who had elected them in successive elections and not certain politicians who dance to the funding by LTTE cohorts.

None of these countries ever uttered a word against the LTTE when we were subjected to LTTE terror. Had it not been for the political sagacity of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, we would never have spent peaceful New Years. Now that the country had been liberated, certain Western politicians try to preach us on human rights and democracy.

The Government will do everything possible to protect the people from all evils. We are ever grateful to the dynamic political leadership and to the Security Forces for affording us a peaceful environment.

If we had continued to seek advice of the peace agents of the West, we would never have achieved this honourable peace.