Chris Slee
On June 17, troops from the Sri Lankan navy carried out a massacre of Tamil civilians hiding in a church in the fishing village of Pesalai.
According to a report by Krishan Francis in the June 19 Melbourne Age, "Sri Lankan forces, shooting indiscriminately, stormed a church where hundreds of Tamils were taking shelter, then opened fire in the surrounding village, killing five people and wounding dozens, according to witnesses.
"The government denied the accusation and blamed Tamil Tiger rebels, but numerous witnesses and an international aid worker said Sri Lankan forces were responsible for the deaths on Saturday as the island nation appeared to stumble even closer towards all-out war."
In a June 18 letter to George Pell, the Catholic archbishop of Sydney, Rayappu Joseph, the bishop of Mannar, described the assault on the church: "... four men, one of whom was in shorts and t-shirt and three in camouflage uniform, rushed into the church compound by the main entrance riding on two motor cycles, it is said. They started firing at the church walls, doors and windows where over 3000 people, after having fastened all the doors and windows from within, were taking shelter. Some Navy personnel fired into the church through the opening between the main door and the floor and as all the people in the Church were lying down on the floor, many of them sustained injuries. One of the Navy personnel, then had opened one of the windows and hurled one after the other two hand grenades into the church."
In addition to firing and throwing grenades into the church, Sri Lankan navy personnel burned huts and fishing boats, and shot five fisherpeople on the beach, according to the TamilNet website.
The Pesalai massacre appears to have been carried out in response to a defeat suffered by the Sri Lankan navy in a clash with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Tamilnet claimed that three naval boats had been sunk when they entered LTTE-controlled waters off the coast near Pesalai.
According to TamilNet, a Pesalai villager said he had been told by Sri Lankan navy troops that civilians will be murdered whenever the LTTE kill Sri Lankan armed forces personnel in battle. "For each soldier killed in action by the LTTE, the navy troopers warned, they would kill us innocent villagers in multiple numbers", the villager was quoted as saying.
The Pesalai massacre is one of many atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan armed forces and allied paramilitary groups as armed conflict escalates. Villages in LTTE-controlled areas have been bombed from the air and bombarded by artillery. Paramilitary groups have murdered members of the LTTE and other supporters of the struggle for Tamil self-determination. The LTTE has responded with increased attacks on government troops and the paramilitaries.
A ceasefire agreement signed between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE in February 2002 still remains formally in effect, but it is becoming increasingly empty in practice as the violence escalates. Peace talks were scheduled for June 8-9 in Oslo, but even though both delegations went to Oslo, they did not meet.
The Sri Lankan government has used the ceasefire period to re-equip its armed forces in preparation for a new war, receiving weapons, training and other assistance from many governments, including the US. A Tamilnet report stated that Pakistan has recently agreed to supply $250 million worth of military hardware, including 40 tanks.
The United States has long classified the LTTE as a "terrorist" organisation, and the European Union recently followed suit. The state terrorism of the Sri Lankan government against the Tamils has been ignored.
TamilNet reported on June 21 that LTTE leader S.P. Thamilchelvan told journalists that if recent aerial bombardments of Tamil areas by the Sri Lankan government continued, it would be "interpreted as undeclared war on the Tamil nation". Sri Lankan Air Force jets bombed the town of Mullaithivu and its suburbs on June 15. Thamilchelvan told the Associated Press wire service that attacks on Tamils by the Sri Lankan armed forces have turned the ceasefire into "a piece of paper that has no meaning at all".
Tamils living in Australia are campaigning to make the Australian government apply pressure on the Sri Lankan government to seek a peaceful solution to the conflict. A meeting of 400 Tamils in Melbourne on June 3 called on the Australian government to "exert appropriate political pressure on the Sri Lankan government to immediately halt the state-sponsored violence, murder and human rights violations perpetrated on the Tamil people".
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, June 28, 2006.
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