Summary

On Monday 14 August 2006, the Sri Lankan Air Force bombed a well-known orphanage in the Tamil North (Mullaitivu). There were some 400 schoolgirls who had gathered for instructions in First Aid and skills training. 51 children and 4 staff were killed on the spot and more than 129 injured, some critically.

The Sri Lankan Government claims that what was bombed was a training facility for the Tamil Tigers. UNICEF (which has offices nearby) and the Swedish–led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) visited the scene soon after. UNICEF’s Joanne van Geiter said “At this time, we don’t have any evidence that they are LTTE cadres”. Major General Ulf Henricisson, the Swedish Head of SLMM, said that his team visited the area and confirmed that the dead were teenage school children and declared “It was not a military installation, we can see (that)”.

It is clear that the Sri Lankan Government’s claim is patently untrue, an attempt to justify the unjustifiable and, more seriously, to deliberately mislead the international community. The reality is that it was a slaughter of school children in one of the worst atrocities of its kind in Sri Lanka. It adds significant weight to the increasing evidence that what is going on in Sri Lanka is genocide of the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan government.

It is mandatory that international action be taken against Sri Lanka (not merely ‘condemnation’) and that the criminals responsible for this outrageous violation of human rights and blot on Sri Lanka, be charged and prosecuted. This will have to be in an international court since it will not be done in that country.

Most of the children killed or seriously injured were from neighbouring schools. They were visiting the orphanage for a 10-day resident seminar. The families of these children have a powerful case to sue the Government for compensation. Since they are poor rural people, this will have to be done by the expatriate community in a class action.

The callous disregard for Tamil civilian lives, which includes the lives of children, has a bearing on possible solutions to the Sri Lankan ethnic problem between the Sinhalese –dominated Government and the Tamil ‘minority’.

The impact of this outrage on a possible solution to the ethnic problem is significant and will be outlined.