COLOMBO, Sri Lanka: Minority Tamil rebels shot and hacked to death 37 Sinhalese villagers in the fourth such massacre this month and at least 18 other people were killed in political violence, police said Tuesday.
All of the slayings occurred during the 24 hour period ending 6am Tuesday and raised to 451 the number killed since Feb. 16 the day after President Ranasinghe Premadasa’s United National Party won parliamentary elections.
In the worst incident, about 25 rebels belonging to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LITE) stormed the remote Sinhalese village of Berawewa, about 120 miles northeast of Colombo senior police officials said.
The attackers hacked to death with knives and swords at least 32 villagers, including three women: who were first raped. Five members of one family were shot dead, the officials said. Twelve children were among the dead.
At least six people were injured in the attack, during which the rebels set fire to five houses, the Officials said.
An army patrol heard the gunfire and rushed to the village, but the rebels detonated a landmine on the approach road, injuring one soldier and delaying the unit long enough to allow the attackers to escape, the officials said.
Troops and police searching the area for the guerrillas discovered 19 bodies in the village and another 18 in the surrounding forest, the officials said.
The deaths brought to at least 89 the number of Sinhalese civilians killed this month in four massacres blamed on the LTTE the only Tamil rebel group to reject a July 1987 accord aimed at ending a war for independence for Northeastern province, home to most of the island’s 3 million Hindu Tamils.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 3, 1989
