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Mannaar Vangkaalai massacre - SL Army
Incident Date 17 February, 1991 , SNE - Ki'linochchi	Email To Friend Print Version
Vangkaalai is a coastal village in the Mannaar district. Following the blowing up of the road bridge at the main entry point into Mannar as well as the Railway Bridge into Mannar, people from Mannar traveled to Colombo by sea from Thaazhvuppaadu through Katpiddi. In this situation, the people of Vangkaalai displaced from their village, unable to bear the harassments of the Sri Lankan military. The military forcefully evicted those who have not displaced on their own. The military then removed all the valuable things from the homes and send to their own homes in the south of the island. It was in this situation that the Principal of the Vanakaalai Mahavidyalayam school, Sebamalai, a teacher from Vangkaalai, Justin Lambert, and a few others went to Colombo through Katpiddi to purchase some items for their homes. They were returning from Colombo on 16.02.1991. They arrived at Thaazhvuppaadu and spend the night there. Next day at 10.00 am they started their trip to Kaaththaanku'lam through Vangkaalai on bicycles. When they arrived at the Vangkaalai junction, Sebamalai, Lambert, another teacher and a boy, were stopped. Their hands were tied with rope and they were blind folded. People who arrived at the junction after them saw this and went and complained to the Bishop of Mannaar. Since the travelers did not arrive home even the next day, the Bishop and the relatives of the travelers went to the Tha'l'laadi military camp, obtained their permission, and arrived at the Vangkaalai camp to look for them. The military stopped the Bishop and the relatives from entering Vangkaalai. Yet, two of the relatives went to the nearby home of a teacher. Since the doors were open they went inside and found blood. They went behind the house and saw the bodies of five people in the well cut into pieces. Yet, given the situation they could not recover the bodies. When in 1993 the people of Vangkaalai resettled in their homes, they found that the well in the teacher’s house has been filled up. The skeletons of the five bodies were lying in front of the well. The skeletons of the five people were handed to the Mannaar hospital by the police. It was sent to Colombo for further investigation. To date no further inquiries were held on the incident.

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