1991 Kokkadichcholai massacre

Batticaloa district forms part of the Eastern province of Sri Lanka. Within the Batticaloa district, during the late 1980s and early 1990s a total of 1,100 civilians became victims of enforced disappearance and assumed killed. In the cluster of villages around Kokkadicholai there were two notable massacres, one in 1987 and the other in June 1991. ==1991 massacre==

On 12 June 1991, following a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) landmine attack on the Sri Lankan Army, a number of Tamil civilians in the Kokkadichcholai region were massacred by the Sri Lankan Army. Government reaction On June 16 an official party including the prime minister, Bradman Weerakoon and local members of parliament one Casinadar, Joseph Pararajasingham and Karunakaran were brought to the Kokkadichcholai army camp by helicopter. As the army Army maintained that those killed were Tigers and that it was unsafe to go to the villages, the prime minister's party was airlifted back to Batticaloa and taken to the rest house. As the prime minister was unable to meet the affected people, local M.P Joseph Pararajasingham met the people. By June 20 changes were made at the Kokkadichcholai camp by adding new officer was in charge. Casualty estimates and rape accusations According to UTHR, the number of victims according to leading local citizens following a house to house check, 67 bodies were identified and buried and a further 56 were missing (a total of 123). Most of the missing persons are presumed dead and cannot be identified, because like the seventeen burnt in the mine crater, they had been mostly burnt to ashes. The rice mill had the largest number of bodies – 43, although the police (with a history of minimising evidence) maintained that only 32 were killed. The locals also reported that at least six women (including two sisters) were raped, and despite the police denials, this was confirmed privately by medical officials. ==Government investigation==

After international community began to put more pressure on Sri Lanka for its human rights record, the government instituted an independent Commission of Inquiry into a massacre by soldiers at Kokkadichcholai in the east in June 1991 – the first inquiry of its kind ever held in Sri Lanka. In 2001 the army accepted responsibility for the large scale massacre at the hamlet of Kokkadicholai. A military tribunal found the commanding officer guilty of failure to control his troops and illegal disposal of the bodies, and he was dismissed from service. The other 19 soldiers under trial were acquitted but nevertheless sent to the front lines in the north of the country as a punishment. A number of organizations have expressed regret over this decision ==See also==