News

The City of Chur commemorates the victims of the 1989 arson attack

2. July 2026

Unveiling of the commemorative plaque and the Naanku Vilakkukal Viethi—the Path of Four Lights

On Thursday, July 2, 2026, the city of Chur held a commemoration of the arson attack at Alexanderstrasse 38 on July 2, 1989. Four people
from Sri Lanka lost their lives, including two children. With a commemorative plaque and the naming of the Naanku Vilakkukal Viethi – “Four Lights Path”—the city is sending a visible message of
remembrance, tribute, and a warning against racism and exclusion.

 

On the night of July 1, 1989, at Alexanderstrasse 38 in Chur, four people from Sri Lanka were killed in an arson attack: Balamugunthan Kandiah, Balamurali Kandiah, Saththivel Thambirajah, and Thevarajah Sinnethamby. Two of the victims were children.

Thirty-seven years after the event, the city of Chur today unveiled a memorial plaque at the site of the incident and named a previously unnamed alley in the immediate vicinity of the crime scene “Naanku Vilakkukal Viethi”—Four Lights Path. The name refers to the four victims and gives their memory a permanent place in public space.

The memorial service began with a minute of silence. Afterward, the Hindu priest Sasikumar conducted a religious dedication ceremony. During the ceremony, flowers were laid, the newly named street was inaugurated with a garland of flowers, and the memorial plaque was sprinkled with holy water, adorned, and consecrated by the lighting of an oil lamp. The ceremony was accompanied by a Tamil-Hindu prayer and a conch shell ceremony.

In his address, Mayor Hans Martin Meuli noted that the street represents a part of the city’s history. He stated that suspicions of a racist or far-right motive had not been investigated thoroughly enough at the time, leaving questions unanswered. This caused additional suffering for the victims’ families and the affected community.

“The city cannot undo what happened. It cannot bring back the lives that were lost. But it can and must clearly articulate today what was not clearly articulated back then,” said Mayor Hans Martin Meuli. The actions taken by the authorities at the time did not fulfill their responsibility toward the victims, their families, and the Tamil community. 

The city of Chur thanks the relatives, the Tamil community, Hindu priest Sasikumar, and all those involved who contributed to the preparation and conduct of the memorial service
.

Note: This text was translated by machine translation software and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.