27 prisoners, some former child soldiers of the LTTE who had surrendered to the authorities, are killed and another eighteen injured when an estimated 3,000 strong mob attacked the National Youth Services Council rehabilitation camp in Bindunuwewa, Bandarawela.

41 people were initially indicted for the killings, but 23 were freed due to lack of evidence. Out of the 18 people who faced a full trial, a further 13 were discharged for lack of evidence. In July 2003, the remaining five accused were sentenced to death by the Colombo High Court. These included three residents of the area, Sub-Inspector of Police S. Jayampathi Karunasena and Sub-Inspector of Police Tyronne Roger Ratnayake (who was later released on lack of evidence). In May 2005, on appeal to the Supreme Court, the remaining four were acquitted: the Supreme Court held that the Attorney General had failed to prove the charges.

Source
Mobs kills Tamil inmates in Sri Lanka prison attack, toll 25, AFP, 25 October 2000; Sri Lankan mob kills 25 former child soldiers, Associated Press, 25 October 2000; Two Sri Lankan police sentenced to death over Tamil prisoner massacre, AFP, 1 July 2003; Bindunuwewa accused acquitted, BBC Sinhala, 27 May 2005.

Quotations

“The killing of 29 LTTE prisoners undergoing rehabilitation in Bandarawela under the security and supervision of the state is an appalling crime. … The incident demonstrates that the war mentality cannot be limited to the north-east theatre of operations. Unless the government speedily emphasises constitutional reform and a political solution, we fear that the larger society will be brutalised beyond repair”. National Peace Council, 27 October 2000.

“If not for the complicity of police officers, this would have been avoided. When the victims went running to policemen seeking protection, they were fired at by the police.” Judge Sarath Ambepitiya, High Court in Colombo.

Opinion
“In July 2003, the High Court in Colombo convicted two mid-level police officers and three local residents of murder and sentenced them to death for their role in the massacre. Still, it took another year, and much prodding by the International Committee of the Red Cross, to arrange for something resembling a proper burial. Yet without death certificates, the families of the ten victims still have not received the $2,000 government compensation awarded the other 17 families, despite multiple letters and personal visits by family members to virtually every government official and bureaucrat directly or indirectly involved in the case. … That said, the principal responsibility for the massacres of course lies with the Sri Lankan state, and here, despite years of studying and living in Sri Lanka, I was in for an unexpected shock. Last August I attended one of the final Bindunuwewa appeals hearings. Held before a five-member bench of the supreme court, the justices—addressed by counsel as “your lordships” and adorned in dark red judicial robes and stiff white collars—had all the markings of decorum. At previous hearings earlier in the summer I had been disturbed by the apparent sympathy of most of the justices for the arguments of the lawyer for the second police officer convicted of murder. (The first had earlier been acquitted when the prosecution admitted that its evidence against him was insufficient.) But the final hearing was truly shocking. As the solicitor general repeatedly referred to the ways the Tamil inmates had been murdered – “beaten, stabbed, and some even roasted alive” he would say with a flourish – one of the justices began to mock his emphasis on the word “roasted”. This brought much laughter from the other justices and the defense lawyers, and even, most disturbingly, from the government lawyers themselves. … This conduct was only the most grotesque example of the judges’ utter disdain for the crimes under consideration and for the state’s responsibility to determine the truth. The proceedings were filled with bad jokes and undignified behavior, lacked any sense of gravity of the case, and indicated no awareness of the state’s obligation to protect the inmates whatever their political sympathies.” Alan Keenan, visiting assistant professor of political science at Bryn Mawr College, No Peace, No War: Have international donors failed Sri Lanka’s most vulnerable? Boston Review, Summer 2005.

“The latest fiasco concerns the Supreme Court’s overturning of convictions in the Bindunuwewa massacre case. The Trial-at-Bar comprising High Court Judges, Sarath Ambepitya, Eric Basanayake and Upali Abeyaratne delivered death sentences on five of the accused in July 2003. Two of the defendants were police Inspector Senaka Jayampathy Karunasena and Sub-Inspector Tyronne Roger Ratnayake. By 27th May, 2005 the five-member bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices T.B. Weerasuriya, Nihal Jayasinghe, N.K. Udalagama, N.E. Dissanayake and Raja Fernando had acquitted all five on appeal. The bench led by T.B. Weerasuriya ruled that the Attorney General failed to prove the charges without reasonable doubt.” Bindunuwewa: The Thin End of the Wedge of Impunity, University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR), 12 June 2005.