Vankalai church massacre 06.01.1985
Vankalai village is in the Mannar district. The Vankalai church served the villagers of Vankalai.
On 06.01.1985, at 12.30 pm, military surrounded the Vankalai village and began shelling and continued shelling till 10.00 am the next day. When the military began firing in the direction of the residence of the church priest, Rev Mary Bastion, he came out in his robes with his prayer beads and begged them to stop shooting. The priest was shot. The military dragged his body to
the front of the sister’s residents. People hiding in the first story of the church saw
this. Many of other civilians who were running in fear were also shot and killed.
Following this carnage the military was celebrating their achievement. The military then took all the dead bodies in their vehicle and left. All eight bodies except that of Mary Bastian were handed over to the hospital by the military. Many young men who were injured in the shooting were treated secretly.
A woman eye witness from Vankalai:
“Our house is near the Vankalai church. I was sleeping at that time. At around 11pm I heard bullet noises all around our house. Some fell on our house. We could hear these sounds till 6am the next morning. I could hear sounds of torture in one of the rooms. I thought that the army had left and went to the Church. The Sisters inside told me to run away as the army were still there. So I did. When they finally left, I went back and went into the Father – Mary Bastion’s room. There were two boys there. They were dead and their blood had mixed in with kerosene on the floor.
Seven people died in total. Six people were in the hospital. The SLA were dancing and singing that night. It seemed that they were all drunk or on drugs.
I was told that the Father had been shot dead. His body had been dragged outside and his photo taken. The Father’s body was taken to Thalladi Army Camp. That day we could see smoke coming from the Army camp. We feared that the Father’s body was being burnt.
The Bishop and the other Fathers went to the Thalladi Army Camp the next day to ask for the Father’s body. But the SLA denied any knowledge of the body.”
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