Fear stalks Tamil village after killing of Christian family

Allaipiddy, Sri Lanka (ENI). Fear is writ large on the face of the 350 families on the islet of Allaipiddy near Jaffna, the heartland of ethnic Tamils on the northern fringe of Sri Lanka.

The fishing village surrounded by Sri Lankan Navy camps is yet to recover from the 13 May massacre when four unidentified gunmen shot dead eight people in the house of the richest man on the island village.

Nobody in the village will speculate about who was responsible, but human rights activists assert that the Sri Lankan security forces were behind the shootings at the Christian household in an ongoing conflict that has pitted Tamil rebels against the Sri Lanka government.

"I will never forget the scene at the house," said Chelladurai, an elderly villager who like most residents did not want to give his full name and who rushed into the shop-cum-residence after hearing the shots and saw bodies lying in pools of blood.

Asked whether the villagers had any clue regarding the identity of the gunmen, Chelladurai replied: "We do not know why they were killed and who did that."

Septuagenarian Selvaraj, a Christian, survived the shooting spree in his two-storey house. The gunmen, however, unleashed bullets into his son, son-in-law, daughter and her two children and one of his workers along with a Christian neighbour who had come to his shop-cum-residence in the fateful evening. A family relative and a local Christian were also killed.

Except for his daughter's family who were Roman Catholics, Selvaraj and the other family members belonged to the Ceylon Pentecostal church.

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