On the day of the incident, Suthanthirapuram, which is along the coastline in the Mullaithivu district, came under SLAFs air attack and shelling attack from 9.15 am to 10.30 am. Because the attack was continuous, people were unable to find safe areas, 25 people were killed and more than 50 were injured. Several hundreds of thousands rupees worth properties were damaged. Hundreds of coconut trees on which people depended for livelihood and 10 houses were completely destroyed. Hundreds of houses were partially destroyed.
Ganashen Kasimalar’s account of the event is as follows:
“Around 9:30am whilst we were home, air bombing started. Our house was bombed too. We left our home and started running, but we did not know where to run to – everything was being bombed. We just ran in any direction. We got separated from our family in all the frenzy. I did not know where my mum, brother, sister…. anyone was. There was another plane flying in the air. We did not know what to do. We just kept going from one place to another in fear of our lives. We hid behind trees and buildings. We could not go back home – there was so much shelling.
Most of the people here were all displaced. We moved very closely with a lot of the people. Good friends, neighbours and relations were killed. This was definitely a planned attack on people who were already displaced and living in hardship.
We could not return home for 15 days. When we did come back, everything was destroyed. All the coconut trees, gardens and buildings were destroyed. Our house was not in a liveable state.”
Available names of victims (name, occupation, age)
1. Richart Seronconsenter, -, 26
2. Vallipuram Ranimalar, House wife, 27
3. Vigneswaran Nesarani, -, 40
4. Vinayagamoorthy Thevakaran, Private worker, 22
5. Sithamparapillai Kumaravel, -, 48
6. Sinnathurai Suthakaran, Private worker, 20
7. Sinnathurai, -, –
8. Sanackuddy Yogapalasingha, Private worker, 27
9. Chartseron Konsedda, House wife, 26
10. Vellaiyappan Subbaiah, Farmer, 57
11. Selvarasa Sritharan, House wife, 21
12. Sebastiyampillai Jeyaratnam, Student, 21
13. Ponnan Sureshkumar, -, –
14. Jeban, -, –
15. Atputham Jegan, -, 23
16. Atputham Jegan, -, 23
17. Aseervatham Parthima, Student, 17
18. Amirthalingham Sutha, -, –
19. Muthuvel Gnanasegaram, -, 59
20. Muththuththamby Vasanthakumary, -, 19
21. Manuval Thevathas, -, 45
22. Palanivel Thiruchchelvy, Student, 18
23. Puspanathan Rameskumar, Student, 13
24. Puspanathan Saththiyaseelan, Student, 08
25. Puspanathan Thevananthiny, Infant, 02
26. Puspanathan Kalaichchelvy, Infant, 05
27. Puspanathan Sathees, -, 25
28. Kandiah Kunasegaram, -, 24
29. Navarasa Krishnamoorthy, Worker, 25
30. Navackumar Kokila, -, 30
31. Ratnasingham Ranimalar, -, 28
32. Rasalingham Uthayakumar, Worker, 39
33. Ramu Ratnalingham, Worker, 26
34. Rajakopalan Ravichchandran, Farmer, 28