Sri Lanka Army soldiers manning a check post close to Thandikulam Agriculture Farm School in Vavuniya entered the school premises, lined up the uniformed hostel students who were engaged in practicals and shot at them, killing four students, 3 Tamil and a Muslim, and wounding eight. The troopers manning a check post, at Soya Lane, 100 meters away from the school, stormed the premises after a Claymore blast killed five soldiers opposite the school around 9:45 a.m. Saturday. Fellow students said the troopers shot at them while they were pleading they were innocent students.
The four dead students were identified as Atchuthan of Batticaloa, Gopinath of Trincomalee, Rizwan Mohamed of Batticaloa and Sinthujan of Vavuniya, Police said. Two students who were in a critical condition were transferred to Anuradhapura, according to medical sources.
The Claymore attack had taken place 10 meters from the school, opposite the road. Five troopers including an officer were killed and the remaining four soldiers in the vehicle were wounded. The troopers were travelling towards Omanthai when their vehicle was attacked.
The soldiers who entered the school premises had come from the check post located at Soya Lane. Vavuniya magistrate M. Ilancheliyan visited the Vavuniya hospital and conducted initial inquiries. Thandikulam is located 4 km north of Vavuniya on A9. Omanthai is situated about 17 km north of Vavuniya. COLOMBO, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Nordic truce monitors said on Sunday Sri Lankan troops opened fire on a group of agriculture students at close range in the island's north on Saturday, killing five, after a deadly rebel ambush on government forces. A military spokesman said ground troops told him the civilians were killed in crossfire after a Tamil Tiger blast in the northern district of Vavuniya killed five soldiers on Saturday, and that police were investigating. "These soldiers fired indiscriminately at a group of students who had thrown themselves on the ground seeking safety after an LTTE (Tamil Tiger) Claymore mine blast nearby," Helen Olafsdottir, spokeswoman for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission that oversees the 2002 ceasefire, told Reuters. "Witnesses say that soldiers jumped over the fence, into the agricultural school premises, and opened fire," she added. "They shot from close range, five of the students were killed and at least 10 others were injured."
Execution-style killings of students in Vavuniya, a war crime - Tamil National Alliance Press Release, 19 November 2006
On 18 November 2006, at about 10.30 am, the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) Army personnel had approached the premises of the Agriculture Farm School in Thandikulam, Vavuniya from several fronts firing in the air with live ammunition. Several students dressed in uniform were engaged in Practicals at the time. On hearing the firing the students had taken cover by lying flat on the ground.
On entering the school premises, members of the GOSL’s Army had ordered the students to stand up. At this point, one student Ramachandran Atchuthan, had stood up and explained that all those present were students of the said school and had no connection whatsoever to an earlier claymore mine attack that had been carried out on a Sri Lanka Army vehicle. At this stage the GOSL Army personnel shot Atchuthan in the head at point blank range. Subsequently three other students, Gopinath of Trincomalee, Rizwan Mohammed of Batticaloa and Sinthujan of Vavuniya were also shot in execution style killings. The GOSL Army personnel then proceeded to open fire randomly at the remaining students, grievously wounding ten students of whom six were girls.
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) condemns in the strongest possible terms this heinous crime committed by the GOSL’s Armed Forces against innocent Tamil civilians. This is yet another crime in a very long list of such crimes that have deliberately and systematically targeted innocent Tamil civilians. These are War Crimes of the most serious nature.
The TNA wishes to point out that the GOSL Armed Forces are over 99% Sinhalese, and are openly hostile to the Tamil people. The Tamil people look upon the GOSL armed forced as an Army of Occupation and have every reason to fear that the massacre of Tamil civilians will continue for as long as the GOSL Armed Forces continue to occupy the areas of historical habitation of the Tamil speaking people.
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