Eastern University Massacre: Missing, Missing, Missing For 25 Years

By Thangamuthu Jayasingam – 

Dr. Thangamuthu Jayasingam

Officer in charge of the Vantharumoolai refugee camp, 1990

Many may not know that, when 5th September 2015 dawns, it will be 25 years of waiting for 158 families, who ‘lost’ a member or two on that day of 5th September 1990 from the VANTHARUMOOLAI REFUGEE CAMP at EASTERN UNIVERSITY. They did not go missing as usual, where no one knew where they went. In this case these 158 were ‘handed over’/ ‘taken over’ by the Sri Lankan Military in front of a population of nearly 40,000 people. They were forced into buses and were driven away in the direction of Valaichenai. This was the last time anyone saw any of them, to date.

Unfortunately, I was the lead officer of the camp at that time and stay witness to this, to date. I have made my comments to various national and international persons regarding these facts. I presented myself to the Presidential Commission on Missing Persons in 2004. I gave them the names of all the army officers who came for the operation that day and also gave the name of the Army Major General who came three days after on 8thSeptember to the camp. I am not aware whether there had been any inquiries to this day. Two colleagues who were managing the camp with me, Prof. Mano Sabaratnam and D.Sivalingam, are no more. I went again to the Presidential Commission in 2014, at the request of relatives of the people who went missing. I gave them a letter stating that I had given all what I had, the documents, and all what I knew, which is already in the report of the previous Commission, published in 2007. I told the commissioners that I want to know what happened to all those? There was no answer. I told them the next time when another commission comes looking for these facts, I won’t be there and you won’t be there and we will be talking of stories of 1990. Perhaps all relevant parties may have died when the next commission comes around.

I have people asking me whether they are alive or not, to which I have no answer. I have people telling me that they are in place X, place XX etc. and I have no confirmation. I am traumatized as any person who went through the ordeals of the war. I wake up at night at times when the missing persons’ memory and the camp comes back to haunt me in dreams….Read More