Mystery surrounds Sri Lanka detention camp carnage

October 27, 2000
Web posted at: 5:44 AM HKT (2144 GMT)

BINDUNUWEWA, Sri Lanka (Reuters) -- The massacre of former Tamil rebels including child soldiers at a Sri Lankan rehabilitation camp was shrouded in secrecy Thursday as the government tried to contain a major propaganda disaster.

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

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 identify the dead at the morgue at the nearby town of Diyatalawa, some 140 miles east of Colombo.

Nestled in the mountains of central Sri Lanka, the Bindunuwewa camp was intended as a show-piece 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.

Thursday the compound was a scene of complete devastation. Machete gashes in the tin walls revealed blackened strips of clothing. Iron bunk beds, whose occupants were clubbed to death, stood mangled.

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

"This is a major setback for us. Everyone knew how much the army was interested in the success of Bindunuwewa," Army Commander General Lionel Balagalle told Reuters.

Police arrest, accuse local villagers

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

"The villagers attacked after police lost control of the boisterous detainees who were demanding their release," said Senior Superintendent of Police Lakshman Seneviratne.

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

"By the time people from the village reached the camp it was all over," said H.M. Jayasundara, a lorry driver's assistant.

"We knew there was some trouble in the camp, but all we saw was crowds of policemen going back and forth," said a retired school principal.

"The suggestion that this is the result of a spontaneous ethnic combustion is getting less credible, particularly given the fact that the camp has been here peaceful for over 10 years," said Arjuna Parakrama, senior fellow at the Washington- based U.S. Institute of Peace after he toured the area.

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

Both Kumaratunga and Balagalle said "outside forces" were probably behind the attack, statements that brought a chorus of protests from Tamil groups.

The killing revived memories past ethnic blood-letting 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 that plunged the country into the all-out war that has claimed more than 60,000 lives.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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