Kattankudy is a name you’ve probably come
across often when reading about the Tamil struggle in Sri Lanka or the Sri Lankan civil war. This predominantly Muslim town in the Eastern province of Sri Lanka has long been a hotspot of communal violence and ethnic tensions. The Kattankudy mosque massacre of 1990 is remembered as one of the most tragic and shocking events of the conflict. Yet, despite its severity, this massacre remains poorly investigated and has too often been used to unfairly frame the Tamil struggle in a negative light. While the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were widely blamed, they have consistently denied any involvement.
What many fail to mention is that this massacre happened just a kilometer away from a Sri Lankan military camp, in an area firmly controlled by the then Sri Lankan state. It is difficult to imagine such an operation taking place without the knowledge or at least tacit consent of the Sri Lankan military.
Another crucial aspect often overlooked in analysis of the Sri Lankan civil conflict is the role of paramilitary groups and home guards employed by the Sri Lankan government to carry out much of the dirty work.
It was never just the Tigers and the Sri Lankan military armed and active in the conflict. Groups like the Muslim Home Guard, operational since the 1980s, were integral in assisting the military in the systematic genocide of Tamils.
The Muslim Home Guard in Sri Lanka was used as a deliberate tool to break the fragile unity between Tamil and Muslim communities in the Eastern province. Through ethnic cleansing, intimidation, and widespread violence, the Muslim Home Guard committed numerous war crimes targeting Tamil populations in the Eastern parts of the island. Their actions ranged from brutal mob riots to targeted attacks, all aimed at destabilizing, and ethnic cleansing Tamils from their ancestral homes in the East.
While Kathankudy became infamous after the 1990 mosque massacre, the mosque itself had long been a center of violence before that. Far from being a victim, the Kathankudy mosque served as a key hub for coordinating and mobilizing violent Muslim mobs. It actively played a role in organizing attacks and fueling the Tamil-Muslim conflict in Eastern Sri Lanka.
One especially harrowing episode unfolded in April 1985. On the 13th, members of the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) in Karaitivu reportedly took a Muslim hostage at gunpoint and robbed local Muslims of bags of rice. In retaliation, Muslims from Kalmunai and Maligaikkadu, with the support of the Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF), launched a brutal counterattack. Over 5,000 Tamil houses in Karaitivu were burned down, and around 40 Tamils were killed. Even Hindu temples were desecrated during this violent campaign. You can read more about this massacre in this Tamil guardian link on Karaitivu 1985: A Forgotten Anti-Tamil pogrom in the Shadow of Sri Lanka’s Genocide
However there is another area that needs to be covered.
The UTHR report that reports on the Karaitivu massacre also mentions about another attack against the Tamils in Navatkudah.
In the aftermath of the Karaitivu massacre, another massacre was being planned by the Muslim Home guards in Kattankudy.
On April 15th 1985, at 10:00 p.m. a cry went out over the loudspeaker at the Kattankudy Mosque, calling on the Muslims to gather at the mosque with sticks and knives in order to attack the Tamils in Manjanthoduwa(Navatkudah)After learning that the Muslim Home Guard was gathering at the Kathankudy Mosque to launch an attack, Tamil youths mainly from the in Manjanthoduwa (Navatkudah) took position guarding the border area between Manjanthoduwa and Kattankudy.
As they stood there guarding their village, the Tamil youth witnessed the Muslim Home Guard approaching them, under the protection of an armoured police vehicle with rotating lights. With the protection of the Sri Lankan police, the Muslim Home Guard launched a violent assault. They proceeded to burn down houses in Manjanthoduwa, while the police armoured car circled the area, offering cover. This attack was one of many waves of coordinated assaults carried out against Tamil villages in the Eastern province during that period.
Kathankudy’s history with violence, didnt start in 1990, it was the main hub for the operations of the Muslim Home Guard. It’s dark legacy didnt end in 2009 either, it continued until the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka, highlighting the ongoing strategic and symbolic significance of this town in regional communal violence and terrorism.
This particular massacre of Tamils in the East by the Muslim Home Guards and their allies was facilitated by state security forces. The complicity extended to allowing places of worship like the Kathankudy Mosque to function as rallying points for violent mobs. This reality shatters the simplistic narrative of the conflict as a binary war between the Sri Lankan military and the Tamil Tigers.
The failure to properly investigate these atrocities has allowed misinformation and propaganda to dominate public discourse, misrepresenting the true nature of the violence during the conflict. Recognizing the involvement of the Muslim Home Guards and the Sri Lankan state’s role is crucial to understanding the full scope of oppression faced by Tamil communities.
Revealing these truths is not about rewriting history but about acknowledging the full story. So, next time someone raises Kattankudy, remember that there is more to the story of Kattankudy and violence. It didn’t start with the mosque massacre in 1990, it began long before, with events that have been ignored or conveniently forgotten
-mrpaluvets
11/08/2024
Comments
Post a Comment