Talk:Kokkadichcholai massacre/Archive 1

message: Looks like the incident in 1987 was better known as Prawn farm massacre. UTHR reference to 1987 incident This was the prawn factory, abandoned since the STF massacre of January 1987. The area then realised a death toil of about 120 which included a number of employees of the prawn factory 
Asian Times reference The security situation in the country underwent a significant transformation in the first and second quarters of 1987. In the early months of the year, Tigers continued with their well-established practice of landmines and ambush of government forces. The government security forces often retaliated by opening fire and conducting search and destroy operations in civilian areas. In one such incident, on January 28, the STF (Special Task Force), following a landmine blast which killed 12 of its men near Batticaloa, entered a nearby town and captured 83 non-combatant civilians, including 22 employees of a shrimp farm, and took them to an abandoned church, where they were killed. (my note: in Sri Lanka Prawn and Shrimp are used interchably) 
There seem to be other references to this incident from the following statement from Asian Times In his annual report, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment singled out Sri Lanka as a country of special concern. According to the report, "The situation in Sri Lanka, which finds itself caught in a spiral of violence and where civilians are allegedly tortured in order to extract information from them about planned acts of violence by the insurgent, is also a great concern."(need to locate that report) 
Infact there is a book on this called 1987 incident called Only Man is Vile: The Tragedy of Sri Lanka, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1992, pp.243-244 by William McGowan (I will be ordering it) Any from pro – ltte sites has number of hits if you do a search on Prawn farm massacre or Kokkadicholai massacreRaveenS 14:15, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: two things..First, the word shrimp is hardly used in SriLanka..We always use prawn,just like the British.Anyone who born and raised in SriLanka aught to know this..Second, who is this William McGowan ??? Is he an expert of something ??? IS he a notable writer of terrorism and international affairs like Rohan Gunaratne ?? If not there is not point bringing him as a source..Imagine, if I write a book saying "there were no mass killings in 1987 and this incident is a fake" ,can i use it as a citation here ?? IF you want to bring something ,it should be WP:RS and acceptable to us.thanks--Iwazaki 01:30, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Prawn and Shrimp argument has not legs both are same, KTR uses Shrimp because he wrote in in foreign magazine and people outside Sri Lanka dont confuse between the two. But about William Mcgovern, he is senior journalist who has written number of crtically aclaimed books about conflicts around the world and related subjects. About his book on Sri Lankan conflict, in the Library Journal (that is a US publication on all books) Ruth M. Mara, from the Agency for International Development, Washington, D.C.wrote Several observers in the book compare the treatment of the Tamils at the hands of Sinhalese extremists to that of the Jews in Nazi Germany. The author himself, however, does not portray Tamil militants as blameless--he documents the ruthlessness of the Tamil Tiger guerrillas against innocent members of all groups who oppose them. It seems a very balanced and neutral book. I have already ordered it.RaveenS 14:04, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

text: Several observers in the book compare the treatment of the Tamils at the hands of Sinhalese extremists to that of the Jews in Nazi Germany..hilarious but intention is obvious to me !!! sorry, we have enough LTTE propagandist in the names of sangam.com.tamilnet,tamilcanadian we don't need more,raveen..You have disqualified his neutrality and his credibility with your post and NO WAY it can be accepted as WP:RS..Also, I am still waiting for neutral source to back up your claim of 232 deaths !!! please,bring it first before ordering controversial books which equals Sinhalese to Nazis..BTW, what happened to all the Sinhalese who lived in the north before 1983 ?? What happened to the Sinhala majority at east before 1815 ?? I wonder who was playing the Hitlers part here !!!--Iwazaki 17:49, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: References for 1987 incient