SRILANKA GENOCIDE: AERIAL, CHEMICAL BOMBING, ARTILLERY SHELLING, MASS MURDER (1990-2000)

GENOCIDE OF TAMILS IN SRI LANKA

AERIAL BOMBING & ARTILLERY SHELLING, CHEMICAL WARFARE & MASS MURDER

Sri Lankan airforce uses a crude form of chemical weapon.
Empty oil barrels are filled with explosives, sawdust and pieces of rubber (old tires).
These are then ignited and rolled out of cargo planes.
When it explodes the flaming rubber sticks to the skin and continues to burn.

On the pretext of fighting the LTTE, Sri Lanka army targets civilians to terrorize and subjugate the Tamil people.

The bombs - oil drums filled with gelignite or flammable gas and rubber tubes, which stick to the skin like napalm - have

no ballistic stability.
- The London Independent 13 February 1991

After the government forces took control of a small island off the Jaffna peninsula 210 Tamils have disappeared and 365

persons have been massacred.
- Statement of a non-governmental organization at UN Commission on Human Rights (48th Session January 1992)

Victims were reportedly shot, bayoneted, stabbed or hacked to death; some were said by witnesses to have been buried

alive.
- Amnesty International Annual Report 1991

"The conduct of the war by the Sri Lanka government falls well short of accepted norms of behaviour."
- Julian Filochowski, Director CAFOD

The hospital has also been bombed and three weeks ago, a helicopter fired into the operating theatre, killing a doctor...

Sri Lankans are just killing civilians at random
- The London Daily Telegraph (13 September 1990)

"International Educational Development is gravely concerned at the genocidal onslaught launched by the Sri Lanka armed

forces on the Tamil civilian population in the North of the island of Sri Lanka."
- International Educational Development, Inc (12 July 1995)

"We condemn the actions of the Sri Lanka government as a gross violation of humanitarian law, intended to terrorise the

Tamil people into submission. We call upon President Chandrika Kumaratunga and the Sri Lanka government to stop committing

these crimes against humanity."
- Humanitarian Law Project, International Educational Development, Inc. (12 July 1995)

"Daily life in Jaffna is conditioned by the distant drone of aircraft engines and the run to the bunkers behind almost

every house. There were no warnings, no air-dropped leaflets announcing operations. Why should there be? After all, no one

is watching."
- The British Refugee Council Publication, Sri Lanka Monitor (July 1993)

"Last week the army bombed and shelled Jaffna, the largest town in northern Sri Lanka, for four days. In further incessant

attacks, almost 300 bombs were dropped on Velvettiturai, birthplace of Velupillai Prabakaran, the Tiger leader, and the

second most densely populated town in northern Sri Lanka. In the attacks, 500 houses and two large schools were reduced to

rubble and more than 100 other buildings, including two historic Hindu temples were damaged beyond repair."
- The Independent. London. (13 February 1991)

The military claims that it only bombs known Tamil Tiger targets but admits it uses aircraft - Sia Marchetti single engine

training planes, adapted to carry two bombs underneath, Chinese Y-8s and Y-12s and British Avros, small cargo planes from

which home made bombs are pushed out of the back - which do not permit accuracy.
- The London Independent 13 February 1991

It is with dismay, horror and sadness I read of the bombing over the Jaffna peninsula... such indiscriminate killings and

hostilities cannot be tolerated by people who care for peace in our world. Do stop the suffering and bloodshed. The world

community is shocked at the barbarity.
- Jean Augustine MP & Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister of Canada, in a letter to President Kumaratunga (1995)

Bombers also hit a crowded market place in another town south of the Jaffna peninsula, with a 90 percent refugee

population killing 22 people and seriously wounding 13. A refugee camp in a girls school, six miles outside Jaffna, was

almost totally destroyed...
- The Independent, London. (13 February 1991)

"this church and several adjacent buildings were hit by further air force strikes at 4.30 p.m. the same day. During the

attack 65 people were killed and 150 wounded, including women and children."
- International Committee of the Red Cross Communication to the Press No.95/30 (11 July 1995)

Thirteen babies were among the 65 dead found under the rubble of a Catholic church bombed...
-Reuters Report (July 11)

"The Sri Lankan air force bombed a refugee-packed Catholic church in the northern Jaffna peninsula, killing 65 people

including 13 babies...The military had dropped leaflets warning civilians to seek refuge in temples and churches to

minimise the chance of death or injury in air strikes."
- Reuters (11 July 1995)

"The (Sri Lanka army) operation, involving intensive artillery shelling and air strikes, immediately forced tens of

thousands of civilians to leave the area. Many of the displaced sought shelter in churches and temples, including several

hundred people who took refuge in the Church of St. Peter and Paul in Navaly. According to eye-witness accounts, this

church and several adjacent buildings were hit by further air force strikes at 4.30 p.m. the same day."
- International Committee of the Red Cross Communication to the Press No.95/30 (11 July 1995)

"Hours after the Sri Lanka government imposed military censorship on press reporting, on 21 September, aircraft bombed a

Jaffna schoolyard crammed with 750 children on their lunch break, killing 34 and seriously injuring over 150 others."
- The British Refugee Council, Sri Lanka Monitor (September 1995)

"In May this year (1995), President Chandrika Kumaratunga declared that it may be necessary to launch an all out attack in

the Jaffna peninsula and that this 'would mean a lot of civilian casualties' and 'the place would be wiped out'. In May,

June and July the Sri Lanka armed forces launched a genocidal onslaught on the Tamil people in the Tamil homeland in the

North-East."
- 21 NGOs at the 47th Sessions of the UN Sub-Commission (9 August 1995)

"I share the grief of those who lost their loved ones in the bombing of the church and school of Navali."
- Pope John Paul (12 July 1995)

"Seventeen innocent civilians, mostly children and aged, killed on the spot. Sixty seriously wounded and many houses

damaged... They executed this disaster with their two newly acquired MI24 helocopters..."
- Rev. Dr. S.J. Emmanuel, Vicar General, Jaffna Diocese (14 April 1996)

"Sri Lanka is trying to kill or terrorize as many Tamil people as possible."
- Margaret Trawick, Professor of Social Anthropology Massey University New Zealand (28 April 1996)

"The conclusion seems inescapable that these rapes are not simply misdemeanours of undisciplined soldiers but are a part

of the systematic attempt made by Sri Lanka to terrorise and subjugate the Tamil people and extend its military rule over

the Tamil homeland in the North-East of the island."
- Statement by Liberation, UN Commission for Human Rights, 53 session (3 April 1997)

"We particularly call on the Sri Lankan government forces to stop shelling and aerial bombing. Long distance shelling and

bombing from high-flying planes will mean further indiscriminate killing of civilians..."
- Australian Council for Overseas Aid (July 1995)

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Muthamizh
Chennai