Vattrapalai is very famousfemale goddess temple inthe Northeast region
situated along the coast inMullaithivu. Once a year onthe full moon day in May
hundreds of thousands ofpeople gather here for“Pongal”, community
cooking and eating. Since1990 due to SLAFs threatsthe number of people who come to this temple for this day had diminished.18.05.1992 was that annual day for that year when more than 5,000devotees have gathered at the temple. The SLAFs shelled from its camp inMullaithivu at 12.45 pm at the peak time of the festival, as if they were
deliberately trying to destroy the festival. Ten people died on the spot, fivemore died at the hospital, and 60 people were injured.
Yogeswari’s son and husband died on that day. This is her account of the
story:
“It was the day of Pongal. Because this is a special day in the year, people had come from all over the place. I had given our ‘kavadi’ for rent. My husband and son were waiting to get the Kavadi back. I was not with them.
I heard that the SLA had started shelling from Mullaithivu. Someone came running to tell me that my brother Sellakilli, had been injured. I ran to see him. It was actually my son and my sister in law’s son who had been injured. We were unable to look at them – they were that badly scarred. My husband was then brought to us. He died soon after. We all screamed and cried. It has been so hard to bring up the kids. I have not given up the ‘kavadi’ business. I have had to grind flour for a living. As long as the SLA are here and doing these kinds of things, people will always suffer like this.”
Available names of victims (name, occupation, age)
1. Navaratnasamy Uvarasini, Student
2. Shanmugalingham, -, 42
3. Mariapiragasam Antony, -, 35
4. Navaratnasamy Sivasegaram
5. Navaratnam Inthuja, Student, 12
6. Navaratnam Sivanesam, House wife, 32
7. Navaratnam Rajitha, Student, 10
8. Kanapathipillai Sithamparanathan, Student, 17
9. Thambirasa Sriskantharasa, Farmer, 33
10. Kulanthaivadivel Jegatheeswaran, Farmer, 24
11. Sathasivam Navaratnam, Fisherman, 36
12. Mariapiragasam Antony, Private worker, 35