A solemn tribute was paid to the victims of the massacre at Thiraikerny in Ampara district 34 years back where more than 50 Tamil villagers were brutally killed.
Local journalists say the family members of the victims organized special prayers at the Ampara Thiraikerny Muthumariamman Kovil on 6 August.
In one of the gruesome massacres during wartime, mobs backed by state security forces entered the Thiraikerny village on the 6th of August 1990 and hacked to death 54 people including children and women apart from the men folk.
Those who escaped the massacre recalled the killers who entered the Pillayar Kovil with the cooperation of the government forces apart from killing their relatives, they also vandalized the temple.
The killings are considered to be an act of revenge for the killing of a few farmers in a paddy field a day earlier in Alimankada.
The history of Thiraikerny village is 70 years old. It was created in 1954 when landless Tamil and Muslim villagers from Palamunai, Oluvil, Meenodaikkattu, and Attalachenai were given fertile 300 acres of coconut farms at a nominal price of Rs. 200 per acre, thus forming the village.
Even after 70 years of the establishment of Thiraikerny, the war-affected villagers are living in miserable conditions according to local journalists.
Despite their poor living conditions, the family members of those massacred nearly three and half a decade ago, expect the perpetrators to be produced in a court of law and face trial thereby rendering justice to the victims.
The culture of impunity which continues to exist in the country has been cited as one of the prime reasons for continuing human rights violations for decades and the lack of accountability which hinders the rendering of justice to the victims.
Most of the alleged perpetrators accused of abductions, extrajudicial killings, mass murders, and rapes are either members of the state security agencies or paramilitary associated with them.
