Bishop denounces: attack was on civilian target
Mannar (AsiaNews) – The United Nations has expressed “deepest concern” about the killing of at least 15 civilians in an army air raid in northern Sri Lanka on 2 January and called for a “a cessation of hostilities between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and resumption of the peace process”.
Yesterday’s bombing struck an area with a strong Catholic presence. The bishop of Mannar diocese rushed to the scene and wrote to the president of
In a statement released yesterday, Margareta Wahlström, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said: “Sri Lankans continue to suffer deeply due to this conflict, and today’s loss of life is a source of deepest concern. It is imperative that both sides to the conflict take all measures to fulfill their obligations under international law to protect civilians in this conflict; we have too often seen them fall short in this duty.”
The statement was issued despite the military air forces’ initial dismissal of civilian casualties as a rebel “story” and their insistence that they had targeted a naval base of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The Catholic bishop of Mannar diocese, Rayappu Joseph, visited the destroyed hamlet of Padahu Thurai a few hours after the shelling and condemned the authorities for bombing a settlement of displaced people, killing children and seriously wounding 35 people. He dispatched a letter to the Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapakse, yesterday, giving him the details of what happened in the firm belief that “only truth coupled with justice can give birth to true peace”.
Bishop Joseph maintained that “this attack was clearly on a civilian target”, saying military propaganda to the contrary “added insult to injury”. “After listening to people and priests and religious working in the area and from my personal inspection, I wish to convey to you that there were no LTTE bunkers nor could we see any sign of their camps,” the bishop wrote. Padahu Thurai is home to 35 Catholic fisher families who had fled war in
In the past, the bishop has pleaded the president and LTTE to keep Mannar District free from hostilities “as a sign that our country can be liberated from the deadly path of war and violence”. But despite the lip service paid to peace by both warring parties in their New Year messages and their supposed respect of a 2002 ceasefire, the conflict is getting worse. More than 3,000 civilians have been killed since the resumption of hostilities last year.
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