Victims of Moothoor massacre must see justice prevail: mother of Kokilavarthani

60-year-old Vairamuththu Pushparany, the mother of one of the victims who was assassinated on 04 August 2006 at Moothoor, in Trincomalee, along with 16 of her co-workers at the office of France-based NGO Action Contre la Faim (ACF, Action Against Hunger), is sharing her grief with Tamils on the occasion of 9th year anniversary of one of the brutal massacres in the war. Those who committed the crime are yet to be subjected to proper investigations. All the investigations that took place happened in “their courts with their judges and police,” the mother of 27-year-old Vairamuththu Kokilavarthani, who was a Hygine promotion moderator with the ACF, told TamilNet. Kokilavarthani was the eldest and the only breadwinner of the family at the time of the massacre. The crime should be subjected for an international investigation of genocide, Tamil activists in Trincomalee said.

Vairamuththu Kohilavarthany

The family of Kokilavarthani has been exposed to repeated telephone call harassments in the aftermath of the massacre. The callers were instructing them to pass the blame on the Tamil movement. “It cannot be the movement (iyakkam),” Ms Pushparany said, adding that her family chose to live in hiding for some time to avoid further harassments from the SL military.

“There were two hearings to which we were invited, one at Trincomalee and one at Kanthalaay. It was their [Sinhalese] court. It was their men, police and judges. How could you expect justice from them,” she asked.

“We were not allowed to speak. We were only given death certificate of our daughter at one of the hearings. The representatives of the French organisation for which our daughter worked, were also there,” Pushparany said.

The NGO promised to look after the victims. The families were given 400,000 rupees (3,000 USD) and the ACF members were visiting them for some time. But, there has been no further assistance or help.

“We are still unable to cope with our normal lives. I live as a mentally affected person. I have not been able to interact with other people,” she says adding that it was important to see the justice prevail.

The ACF maintains that the Moothoor massacre was not only a crime against humanitarian personnel, but also one of the gravest war crimes committed in the war.

In a report issued in December 2013 the ACF said: “In view of the gravity of the case and with no prospect of an effective domestic investigation after 7 years of inconclusive legal proceedings, ACF has decided to publicly say that it believes the 17 aid workers were assassinated by Sri Lankan security forces and the criminals have been protected by Sri Lankan authorities.”

Victims of Moothoor massacre (Photo Courtesy: ACF)