The Bindunuwewa Massacre or Bindunuwewa Prison Massacre took place on October 24, 2000, at a detention center of
Bindunuwewa,
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
, resulting in the deaths of 26
minority
Minority may refer to:
Politics
* Minority government, formed when a political party does not have a majority of overall seats in parliament
* Minority leader, in American politics, the floor leader of the second largest caucus in a legislative b ...
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nati ...
political prisoner
A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention.
There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...
s by a
mob
Mob or MOB may refer to:
Behavioral phenomena
* Crowd
* Smart mob, a temporary self-structuring social organization, coordinated through telecommunication
Crime and law enforcement
* American Mafia, also known as the Mob
* Irish Mob, a US crimin ...
of Sinhalese.
Camp
The low-security detention center was established to house former
LTTE
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; ta, தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள், translit=Tamiḻīḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ, si, දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි, t ...
cadres. Of the 26 killed, 2 were under the age of 21 and the rest were between 21 and 30.
The massacre
On October 24, 2000, a mob of a few hundred villagers armed with knives, rods and torches stormed the detention center. The
Sri Lankan Army
ta, இலங்கை இராணுவம்
, image = File:Sri Lanka Army Logo.png
, image_size = 180px
, caption = Emblem of the Sri Lanka Army
, start_date ...
detachment that was posted there had been withdrawn the previous day, for unknown reasons.
Once the
massacre
A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...
started, the posted
police
The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...
personnel refused to intervene to stop it.
Government response
Initially, the government responded by saying that the detainees had rioted and that the massacre was an outcome of an attempt to control the rioting. Then it was claimed that the police were unable to protect the detainees in the face of superior mob force. Eventually, the government charged a few police officers with a crime. Most were initially convicted of murder, only to be released by the Sri Lankan Supreme Court in 2005.
Theories
A number of theories have been postulated to explain the massacre:
* It was organized by local Sinhala
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...
political activists with the connivance of Sri Lankan Army and police personnel.
* It was a reaction by the local villagers who resented the detention center in their neighborhood.
* It was organized by the military establishment to thwart an attempt by the detainees to go on hunger strike in the subsequent days to protest their detention.
See also
*
List of attacks attributed to Sri Lankan government forces
The following is a list of attacks on civilians attributed to armed groups under the control of the Sri Lankan government - Army, Navy, Air Force, Police, state organised mobs and paramilitary groups ( Home Guards/Civil Defence Force, EPDP, PLOT ...
*
List of attacks attributed to the LTTE
The following is a list of chronological attacks attributed to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), commonly known as the Tamil Tigers. The attacks include massacres, bombings, robberies, ethnic cleansing, military battles and assassinati ...
*
List of massacres in Sri Lanka
References
Report of Sri Lankan Human Rights commission
Riots and civil disorder in Sri Lanka
2000 in Sri Lanka
Bindunuwewa
Prison massacres in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka and state terrorism
October 2000 events in Asia
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