Mailanthanai is an isolated village in Mattakalappu (Batticaloa), where paddy cultivators and cattle farmers managed to make a meagre living, surviving at the mercy of the elements. They live in ramshackle huts with no running water and an electricity supply that is patchy. The nearest shop is thirty minutes away and carries only the basic necessities for a frugal life. (Mailanthanai was renamed as ´´Siththapura“ by the srilankan government)

On 09.08.1992, a group of soldiers had entered Mailanthanai village and ordered the residents to come out of their houses before attacking them with knives and clubs. Survivors were fired at.

Nallasera Nallamma was cooking lunch on August 9, 1992.
They rounded up the villagers, separating the men from the women and children. Then Nallamma heard these chilling words, “Should we kill everyone including the children or should we spare the children?” asks a soldier. Another one replies, “Yes, kill everyone”.

Before August 1992, there were 90 families living in the village but after the massacre, only 30 families remained. The others left for safer places, fearing that they would face further retaliation for identifying their attackers and bringing about their prosecution. Many of the injured victims are still traumatised and bear the deep scars of knife wounds that have not healed properly.

Some did not want to revisit the harrowing scenes and were fearful of repercussions even after 31 years but others like Nallamma (58) described how she was shot as she fled with her three year old child. “I fell down. I did not know what had happened to my child. I watched as they set fire to my house. Then I fainted and was taken to hospital and regained consciousness only after two days,” she said.Nallamma remembers that before she ran away, she saw a pregnant woman being brutally hacked to death before her eyes.

Karappaiya Periyannan (69) said there were ten children who were killed but his son was spared after running away and hiding in a paddy field. “There are no reminders of the dead people because all their houses were burnt and set on fire. The army burnt it all,” he said. Thirty nine people were killed and 40 people were wounded in the attack.

The rest of the people in the village had fled and sought refuge at Kalmadu, another village in the Valaichchenai area, where they still live in a refugee camp.

Due to pressure from civil rights groups, the Sri Lankan government indicted twenty SLA soldiers for the massacre. Initially, the case had been filed in Batticaloa courts. Later, on representation by the accused soldiers on the claims their safety was in doubt, the government transferred the case to courts in Colombo.

32 witnesses now living in Kalmadu refugee camp are forced to travel to Colombo to attend the case. One of the witnesses, fifty one year old Rasan Krishnan told TamilNet,” we do not know when the case will be over and when we will return to our own land Mylanthanai.”