Vaharai bombing

Vaharai bombing

Location of Sri Lanka
Location Vaharai, Batticaloa district, Sri Lanka
Date November 7, 2006 (+6 GMT)
Target Sri Lankan Tamil refugees
Attack type
 Massacre, mass murder, school shelling
Weapons Artillery
Deaths 45
Non-fatal injuries
 100
Perpetrators Sri Lankan Army

The Vaharai bombing is a disputed event in the Sri Lankan civil war. It occurred on November 7, 2006 when, according to survivors of the incident interviewed by Reuters, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam fired artillery at Sri Lankan military personnel from near a school where minority Sri Lankan Tamil refugees displaced by the current phase of the Sri Lankan civil war had taken shelter.[1] The Sri Lankan Army returned fire and around 45[2] civilians were killed. Over 100 were injured and admitted to the local hospitals. However, people who were interviewed by Human Rights Watch claimed that the LTTE did not fire artillery. Further, the rebel LTTE denies firing artillery from close to the school. The incident occurred at around 11.35 a.m close to Kathiraveli, a coastal village in Vaharai peninsula of the Batticaloa district in eastern Sri Lanka.

The incident

The LTTE claimed the shelling killed 43 displaced Tamil civilians who had been taking shelter after the recent flare up of the Sri Lankan civil war. However the SLMM counted 23 bodies.[2] About 300 were wounded, 127 of them seriously. Many were killed when two shells hit school buildings housing a large number civilians.[3] Shelling also damaged the Sonobo Children's Home seriously injuring nearly 12 infants.[4] The town Kathiraveli in the Vaharai region is mainly populated by minority Sri Lankan Tamils and indigenous Vedda people. It was under the de facto control of the LTTE rebels.

The Sri Lankan government responded saying that the refugees housed within the school were being used as human shields by the LTTE. The Nordic ceasefire monitors, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, said they did not see any LTTE military installations nearby.[5] However the government's account was supported by survivors of the incident who had fled the area and subsequently taken shelter in government controlled territory. Reuters reported one survivor saying, "First I heard big guns fired (by the LTTE) from the camp area. I jumped into a bunker. Then the army returned fire and I heard big explosions in the camp."[1] However, Human Rights Watch conducted interviews with 12 witnesses to the attack. All witnesses said that there were no LTTE fighters located in or adjacent to the IDP camp at the time of the attack or directly before. They also reported that the nearest LTTE military base was the Sinnakangai camp on the coast about two kilometers away. None of the interviewees had seen or heard outgoing shelling earlier that day. Another women who lived near the IDP camp claimed “Before the shelling I heard nothing. It was sudden, we didn’t expect it.” Another man whose children were wounded in the shelling said that there was no LTTE present near the camp and he did not hear any shelling from the LTTE.[6]

Reactions

Accusations of blocked humanitarian aid

The LTTE political head for the Trincomalee district claimed "The government has already blocked the relief assistance to the internally displaced persons in Vaharai area. They were provided dry rations under the United Nation’s World Food Program and that was too stopped for three weeks." In addition, the LTTE accused the Sri Lankan government of preventing ambulances carrying the injured to pass military checkpoints for nearly three hours.[16]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Sri Lanka says sinks rebel boats, Tamil MP killed". Reuters. 2006-11-10. Archived from the original on 2006-11-10. Retrieved 2006-11-11.
  2. 1 2 "Lanka army 'kills 45 civilians'". BBC World Service. 2006-11-08. Retrieved 2006-11-19.
  3. 1 2 3 "Lanka gov't 'regrets' killing 65 civilians". DNA World. November 9, 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-14. Keheliya Rambukwella said ‘the Norwegian-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission had reported seeing 23 bodies after the rockets had been fired into two school buildings housing a large number of displaced Tamil civilians’
  4. 1 2 "Sri Lanka military reported to have killed 65 civilians". Asiantribune.com. November 9, 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-14.
  5. ↑ "Anger over Lanka civilian deaths". BBC World Service. 2006-11-09. Retrieved 2006-11-19.
  6. ↑ "Attack at the Kathiravelli School". Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 2007-08-11.
  7. ↑ "Sri Lankan Tamil MPs in Colombo protest against the artillery attack". AFP. 2006-11-09. Retrieved 2006-11-09.
  8. ↑ "Sri Lanka regrets killing of civilians". lankanewspapers.com. November 9, 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-14.
  9. ↑ "Tamil member of Parliament killed in Sri Lankan capital". Associated Press. 2006-11-09. Retrieved 2006-11-09.
  10. ↑ Senanayake, Shimali (November 9, 2006). "Artillery Fire Kills 23 Civilians and Wounds 135 in Sri Lanka". New York Times. Retrieved 2006-11-14.
  11. ↑ "Karunanidhi deplores shelling by Lankan forces". Press Trust of India. 2006-11-09. Archived from the original on 2006-11-28. Retrieved 2006-11-09.
  12. ↑ "Sri Lanka: United Nations condemns indiscriminate use of force". United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 2006-11-09. Retrieved 2006-11-09.
  13. ↑ "Sri Lanka: Attack on displaced civilians must be investigated". Amnesty International Press Release. 2006-11-08. Archived from the original on 2006-11-13. Retrieved 2006-11-09.
  14. ↑ "Military Attack in Eastern Sri Lanka". US State Department Press Release. 2006-11-09. Archived from the original on 2006-11-10. Retrieved 2006-11-09.
  15. ↑ "Letter to United Nations High Commissioner" (PDF). Humanitarian Law Project Letter. 2006-11-09. Retrieved 2006-11-09.
  16. ↑ "SLA denied transport to Vaharai injured for 3 hours- Elilan". Tamilnet. 2006-11-09. Retrieved 2006-11-09.

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