Still searching for justice 11th

anniversary of Trinco 5 killings

02 Jan 2017
On this day 11 years ago, five Tamil students were summarily
executed by Sri Lanka's Special Task Force, whilst they spent an
afternoon on the beach in Trincomalee.
To date no one has been brought to justice for the murder.
The case known as the 'Trinco 5' remains one of the highest
profile killings in Sri Lanka to receive international attention, listed
in 2014 by the then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights'
report on the island as one of four emblematic cases of the
government's failure to ensure accountability and having been
raised repeatedly in international forums.
Despite the change in government almost two years ago,
promises of accountability have borne little fruit and the struggle
for justice for the Trinco 5 has stalled. To this day, it remains an
inescapable reminder of the prevalence of impunity on the island.
The five slain students, who were all 20-years-old when killed,
are:
Manoharan Ragihar (22.09.1985)
Yogarajah Hemachchandra (04.03.1985)
Logitharajah Rohan (07.04.1985)
Thangathurai Sivanantha (06.04.1985)
Shanmugarajah Gajendran (16.09.1985)
11 years on from the killings, we examine the events of that
fateful day, its widespread impact and the long continuing
struggle for justice.

An evening by the beachfront

The last time I heard from my son, Ragihar, was a mobile phone
text message, said Dr Kasippillai Manoharan, recalling the details
of that evening. It just said: DAD
That was 2 January 2006. He had been on the beach with four of
his friends in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, near our home.
The spot where the students had gathered was a popular location
on Trincomalees Dutch Bay beachfront, where a statue of
Mahatma Gandhi sits amidst a backdrop of the ocean. Ragihar
had left home that evening to pray at the nearby temple, and on
his way back had met with some friends from his high school, the
Koneswara Hindu College. Whilst the group sat and talked on the

concrete seats facing the waves, at approximately 7:35pm a

green auto rickshaw rode towards the group.
Suddenly a grenade was thrown and fell near my feet, said
Yoganathan Poongulalon, a survivor of the massacre. I ran about
10 metres south and fell down injured. At least four others had
also been hurt. The auto rickshaw from which the grenade was
thrown went towards the Fort, he added, referring to Fort
Frederick, where the Sri Lankan Army Headquarters was based.
After passing both the Pansala army and police checkpoints,
witnesses state that the rickshaw drove into the base.
The students on the beachfront frantically began searching
around for help. Immediately after the rickshaw had sped off
though, navy personnel had closed off all exits to the beach no
one was allowed in or out. Instead a military jeep rolled closer,
with 10 to 15 uniformed armed men shouting in Sinhalese. The
men, later identified as members of Sri Lankas police Special
Task Force (STF), proceeded to assault the students with their rifle
butts.

Meanwhile, at his home on St

Marys Road near the beach, Dr Manoharan heard the grenade
explode. I knew it was a bomb blast, he said. I had previously
lived in Jaffna for a number of years and I have learnt from
experience to recognise the difference between a gunshot sound,
bomb blast and fire crackers. His other two sons had returned
home, but Ragihar was yet to be seen.

Minutes later, Ragihar rang Dr Manoharans phone. Daddy, he

said, the forces are around me.. He meant the security
forces, explained Dr Manoharan. That was all he said. After that,
I got the text my last contact with my son.
He rushed towards the beachfront, a few hundred metres from the
family home. As he made his way, three navy troops stopped him
at a checkpoint. I cant allow anyone to go inside, said the
soldier in Sinhala. Exasperated, Dr Manoharan continued to argue
with the soldiers, telling them that he was searching for his son. I
dont know what I can do doctor, I am under orders not to let
anyone in, replied one of them. He could go no further.
I was not able to see anything unusual at that time because of
the light, he recalled. The lights which normally illuminated the
Gandhi statue had unusually been switched off. Visibility was
approximately 50 75 metres and I could only see soldiers, not
civilians, moving around and vehicles. Amidst the mass of
vehicles and soldiers that Dr Manoharan could see, one stood out.
A grey unmarked pick up vehicle had been sat parked further
ahead, watching whilst events were unfolding. Inside sat SP Kapila
Jeyasekera.
By this point, parents of the other students too had attempted to
reach the area. Ponnuthurai Yogarajah, the father of
Hemachandran, was also stopped by Sri Lankan troops at a
nearby checkpoint. Mr Yogarajah though, was received a much
rougher treatment. He told UTHR-J of how he was struck by
military personnel who forced him to the ground. One man
pointed the gun at us and shouted aloud in Sinhalese, All are
Tigers and must be shot, continued Mr Yogarajah. I fell down
and lay with my chest down. I saw 20 to 25 persons there in that
condition. Soon after masked men, possibly belonging to the
STF, arrived and began to beat him. The rest of Hemanchandrans
family desperately tried to get in contact with his friend
Lohithathasan Rohan. They tried ringing his phone, but twice the
call was cut. The third time a stranger picked up, speaking
Sinhala. The male voice that answered asked the family for their

names and addresses, and then assured them that Rohan was
with them. He then hung up the phone.

The beachfront where the killngs took place. Image

courtesy Google street view
Flashes of gunfire
I spent a long time talking and arguing with the soldiers at the
check-point trying to get through, said Dr Manoharan. And then
I heard voices crying in Tamil: Help us! Help us!.
Suddenly there was gunfire. I looked toward the Gandhi statue
and saw with my own eyes flashes of gunfire, pointing down

toward the ground, the firing was rapid bursts of fire automatic
fire.
The shots had rang out across the area and were heard by Mr
Yogarajah too, who was still lying face down on the ground. I
heard gunshots, he said. They were not shots fired upwards, but
had the distinct pound of shots fired at the ground. I realised that
a tragedy had taken place.
The students had been pushed on to the road. They had then
been forced to lie face down and shot.
Poongulalon and Pararajasingham Kokularaj, the only other
survivor of the massacre, managed to escape by feigning death.
Kokulraj later told a court that as he lay on the ground, he saw his
friend Rohan being shot. He felt cold in his stomach and passed
out.

The cover up
An anxious Dr Manoharan, still stuck at the checkpoint, demanded
to know what was happening. He saw SP Jayasekeras pick up
unmarked truck leave the area. I saw that there were about six
or seven armed soldiers being carried in the open backed rear
section, he described. They were wearing full-face masks, which
we call monkey masks only holes for the eyes.
If you are looking for your son you should go to the hospital and
check for him there, the navy soldier at the checkpoint told him.

Mr Yogarajah had already frenetically made his way there and was
waiting at the hospital entrance as the military jeeps pulled up. I
went near and peeped inside, he said. I saw two bodies and
nothing else at the back I turned the bloodstained faces to see if
either was my son. My son was not there. As he sat more military
vehicles began arriving, carrying bodies. In the third, I saw one,
which from the features and the dress I recognised as my son. I
began screaming.
A few minutes later, Dr Manoharan arrived, seeing SP
Jayasekeras vehicle parked outside whilst armed men in
camouflage uniforms were patrolling the hospital corridors. This
could only happen in Sri Lanka, he commented, as police officials
attempted to stop him from entering. After forcing his way
through, a nurse suggested that Dr Manoharan visit the mortuary.
When I entered the first sight was the body of my dear son
Ragihar, he said. Ragihars pockets had been pulled out. His
wallet, chain, ID cards and some petty cash had all been taken
from him. His eyes were wide open and blood was coming out of
an ear. There was a gaping hole of 2 to 2 inches at the back of
his head.
Three uniformed police officers and six or seven masked men with
guns approached him. They demanded that he sign a statement
admitting his son was an LTTE cadre who had been killed in an
explosion. An angry Dr Manoharan refused. He left the hospital
and later returned with the head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring
Mission (SLMM) in the Trincomalee district Arthur Tveiten. The
SLMM chief exclaimed, This is murder, these boys have not been
killed by explosion these are gunshot wounds.
Yet, in the days following the killing the Sri Lankan military
maintained the students were LTTE cadres. Sri Lankas Army
Commander for Trincomalee Major General Tissa Jayawardena
said they had plotted to attack a security checkpoint and
accidentally exploded bombs they were carrying. An army website
carried the same story.

BBC Sinhala published an article just two hours after the incident,
claiming that five LTTE cadres had been shot dead by security
forces. It appears the Navy briefed BBC Sinhala, said UTHR-J.

The funeral of one of the slain students.

We know the STF did it

The killings came a month after then Sri Lankan President

Mahinda Rajapaksa assumed office and the island began to slide
towards all-out war. As tensions escalated in the North-East, a
special Defence Ministry advisor and JHU senior member H.M.G.B.
Kotakadeniya, reportedly allocated a squadron of STF commandos
to Trincomalee, with an order to crack down on dissenting activity.
The move was approved by the presidents brother and infamous
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
The unit of STF troops present on the day were overseen by SP
Jayasekera, the officer who sat in his vehicle as events unfolded

that evening. Vas Perera, part of the STF contingent sent to

Trincomalee and Udawatte Weerakody a navy officer with criminal
affiliations and linked to potentially supplying the weapon that
was used in the killings, have also been named as key individuals
linked to the crime.
Twelve STF personnel were originally arrested for the crime, but
have since been released. Their names are: Harichandra Perera,
Rohitha Wijekumara, P. Ananda, T. Jeyalal, U. Amal Pratheep,
Lavilkumara Rathnayake Chaminda Lojitha, Uthaya Mihira
Bandara, Gunamunagamage Hettige Sanjiva, U. Vimal Bandara,
Nimal Bandara, Jeyasekara Tissanayake Jeyalath Tissanayake, and
Indika Duvara.
Looking back, Dr Manoharan became increasingly convinced that
the killing had been planned in advance. With tensions growing in
Trincomalee, the arrival of the STF unit added to pressure in the
area. Locals had already warned him on the day not to let his
children out that evening, he recollected. As his third son was
coming home that evening, certain roads had already been
cordoned off he said, before any explosions had reportedly
occurred.
The STFs involvement in the murder was confirmed in a leaked
US Embassy cable from Colombo in October 2006, after the then
US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert O. Blake met with Sri Lankan
Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa.
The cable stated,
Speaking with surprising candor, Rajapaksa explained the GSL's
efforts to prove that members of the Security Task Force (STF)
murdered five students in Trincomalee in January:
"We know the STF did it, but the bullet and gun evidence shows
that they did not. They must have separate guns when they want
to kill someone... We know who did it, but we can't proceed in
prosecuting them."
Wtiness intimidation

The killings sparked outrage amongst Tamils, with a near

continuous hartal declared in Trincomalee.

Thousands attend the funeral in Trincomalee.

However, the widespread call for the killers to be brought to
justice, did little to spur the state into action. Instead it brought
increased pressure from the military on witnesses and relatives of
those killed, as intimidation ramped up. After Dr Manoharan gave
evidence before a magistrate a week after his sons death, the

family home was pelted with stones and he received death

threats over the phone. Armed men would frequently visit his
house, and the unmarked pick-up truck of SP Jeyasekera was once
seen parked outside.
Weeks later, Dr Manoharan would receive an anonymous letter in
broken Tamil warning him against giving further evidence.
We shot your five sons because they are supporters of the Tigers
who are attempting to link our Eastern Province with the
North, the letter read. This land (the East) belongs to the
Sinhalese. All Tigers, Tiger supporters and besides Tamil loyalists
(pattalarkal) will soon be evicted or killed.
The letter, which was also sent to the families of all the murdered
students, was signed off by The Vigilant group for the
Elimination of the Enemy.
Whilst military personnel intimidated Dr Manoharan, Sri Lankas
minister for human rights Mahinda Samarasinghe tried a different
tact. He called the doctor and offered him a nice house Colombo
for you and your family in exchange for dropping pursuit of the
perpetrators. We can find a nice school for your children, said
Mr Samarasinghe, a politician who would go on to represent Sri
Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Dr Manoharan refused. Of the crowd of people on the seafront
that night, Ragihars father was the only one prepared to speak
out, said Amnesty Internationals Secretary General, Salil Shetty
in 2012. Others were too scared.
The harassment of his family continued and he eventually
suspended his medical practice and his children stopped
attending school. He was forced into exile.
He was not the only person who had to flee. A year later and
thousands of miles away, a 20-year-old asylum seeker being held
on Christmas Island described how he was a witness to the events
that evening. He was beaten, imprisoned and eventually forced to
leave.

More deadly consequences followed for others. Weeks after the

murders, Sudar Oli journalist Subramaniyam Sugirdharajan
was shot dead. He had accompanied Dr Manoharan to the
mortuary and published photos showing the bodies with pointblank gunshot injuries, disproving government claims that they
were killed by a grenade explosion.

The family of Subramaniyam Sugirdharajan mourn

besides his body after he was gunned down in
Trincomalee

Mr Yogarajah
would suffer another loss just months later. His other son
Kodeeswaran, would be harrassed by security forces. The STF
gave him many calls and he feared for his life and told me not to
reveal anything in the courts, saying that they would shoot us,
said Mr Yogarajah. Six months later, Kodeeswaran was murdered

in Muttur one of 17 relief workers with the French nongovernmental organisation agency Action Against Hunger (ACF)
shot dead by Sri Lankan security forces.
A Buddhist priest who publicly condemned Ragihars murder was
also killed, said Dr Manoharan, speaking on the death of leading
Buddhist monk, Handungamuwe Nandarathana. The monk, who
spoke Sinhala and Tamil, had worked towards peace and had
attended both a memorial for the slain students, as well as Pongu
Thamil events. He was shot dead by Sinhala speaking
gunmen. This shows how far the authorities were willing to go to
hide the truth about what they had done to my son, added Dr
Manoharan.

Buddhist monk Handungamuwe Nandarathana at a

memorial service for the slain students.

Still searching for justice

I have no doubt that Mr Kapila Jeyasekera is

responsible for killing my son said Dr Manoharan, seven years
after the murder.
In 2015, 12 people, including an Assistant Superintendent of
Police, were remanded over the killings. However to date, none
have been brought to trial. Instead, 2013 saw Kapila Jayasekara,
who reportedly spearheaded the executions, promoted to DIG in
the Amparai district.
The case has continued to become a rallying point for activists
demanding justice for human rights violations, with over 700
activists in New York demanding justice for the killings in 2012
and condemnation from human rights organisations across the
world.

Despite Dr Manoharan's courageous and tireless efforts, justice

has still not been delivered for the killings.
Speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Dr
Manoharan told member states,
With all the pain of losing my son Ragihar, I seek your help and
that of the Human Rights Council to move the investigation of the
murder of the five young men in Trincomalee to the international
level because I have no hope for justice in Sri Lanka.
The OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) subsequently
determined that there are reasonable grounds to believe that

security force personnel, including STF personnel, killed the five

students. This case demonstrates again the challenges in
pursuing accountability for such alleged crimes at the domestic
level in the context of Sri Lanka, it continued.
The Trinco five massacre is not such a difficult
case, commented James Ross, Human Rights Watchs Legal and
Policy Director. The ability of the government to prosecute it has
broader implications for justice in Sri Lanka."
"Many things can be buried on a white sandy beach. The memory
of five students should not be one of them.

This report was compiled with testimonies collected by Together

Against Genocide (see here), UTHR-J (see here) and Amnesty
International (see here and here).
Posted by Thavam