Date:          Thu, 13 Jun 1996 22:37:40 +0000
To: Sri Lanka Net <slnet@lacnet.org>
From: "Mariellen Dwyer" <mdwyer@igc.apc.org>
Subject:       UA 143/96 on Sri Lanka

TO:  SRI LANKA NET
FROM:  Jim McDonald, AIUSA Sri Lanka Coordinator
RE:  UA 143/96
DATE:  June 13, 1996

Amnesty International issued the following urgent action appeal 
today.

UA 143/96         Deliberate and Arbitrary Killings / Fear of 
Further Killings                   13 June 1996
SRI LANKA  
                  Vinoris Silva (male)
                  Benedict Perera (male)
                  Renuka Dhamayanthi (female)
                  Ranil Krishantha (10) (male)
                  Warnakulasuriyage Dinesh (male)
                  Tennakoon Arachige Marie Teresa (female)
                  Liyanage Lalith Chaminda (male)
                  Liyanage Lalith Manchula (3) (male)
                  Tennakoon Arachige Nicolas Appuhamy (male)
                  Jayakody Arachige Marie Josephine (female)
                  Gamage Sandya Malkanthi Perera (15) (male)
                  Gamage Tilini Perera (female) (13)
                  and two others (unnamed)
                  
Members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are reported to 
have deliberately killed 14 Sinhalese civilians, including five women and 
four children, in the early hours of 11 June at Aruvakalu, north of 
Puttalam town on the west coast, near the border with the Northern 
Province.

According to survivors, approximately 30 members of the LTTE armed with 
guns and machetes attacked the village. One survivor said that about 
fifteen LTTE members entered the house of his family shortly after 
midnight. They blindfolded nine people and tied their hands behind their 
back. They then attacked them with machetes and shot them. One of the 
victims managed to escape. He reported how the house with eight bodies 
inside was later set on fire.

Six other villagers were reportedly dragged into the nearby jungle and 
hacked to death there. Some of their bodies are also said to have gunshot 
wounds.

According to survivors interviewed by journalists and others visiting the 
area, the villagers sought help at a police post in a nearby village but 
the police did not intervene. Soldiers at two army detachments nearby did 
not come to the village either until hours after the attack.

Amnesty International is once again concerned that Sinhalese civilians 
appear to have been deliberately and arbitrarily killed solely on the 
basis of their ethnicity in direct violation of Common Article 3 of the 
Geneva Conventions. It presses upon the LTTE that it is an essential 
obligation under humanitarian law to at all times maintain the 
distinction between the civilian population and combatants, and that in 
case of doubt regarding the status of any individual, he or she should be 
presumed to be a civilian.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Amnesty International has repeatedly appealed to both the LTTE and to the 
Government of Sri Lanka to avoid deliberate and arbitrary killings in the 
context of the ongoing armed conflict in the north and east of the 
country. In a statement issued in July 1995 in response to earlier 
appeals by members of Amnesty International calling for an immediate halt 
to such killings, the LTTE argued that such killings could be justified 
under international humanitarian law because Sinhalese villagers in those 
areas were considered by the LTTE to be actively taking part in the 
conflict between the Sri Lankan security forces and the LTTE because they 
were part of the Sri Lankan Government's 'war for land' in the north and 
east.

Amnesty International issued a public response stating that, because 
there were no reports of any of the villagers having used arms prior to 
or at the time of the attack by the LTTE, they could not be considered 
to be legitimate targets under international humanitarian law. In the 
incident described above, there is no evidence to suggest that any of the 
victims could be considered combatants. In a meeting with representatives 
of the LTTE abroad on 11 June, Amnesty International raised concerns 
about continuing reports of killing of civilians and the killings at 
Aruvakalu in particular. The representatives stated that it was not a 
policy of the LTTE to kill civilians. Amnesty International has urged the 
LTTE leadership to make a clear statement condemning and prohibiting the 
deliberate and arbitrary killing of civilians.

Amnesty International is deeply concerned about the deliberate and 
arbitrary killing of 14 civilians at Aruvakula, Puttalam district on 11 
June.  Amnesty International urges the LTTE to determine fully the 
responsibility for these killings and to take appropriate 
preventive action to ensure that those responsible do not continue to 
commit similar abuses;