Sri Lanka’s opposition parties are trying to cobble together an all-party government and pick candidates who can take over after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe agreed to step down, giving in to popular pressure in a country struggling to pay for essentials.
Sri Lanka has been plunged into a political vacuum after an economic crisis sparked widespread protests against the government.
Media reports said:
A group of nine Cabinet ministers announced they will quit immediately to make way for an all-party government, outgoing Justice Minister Wijayadasa Rajapakshe said. Wickremesinghe’s office said that another group that met the prime minister decided to stay on until a new government is formed.
Opposition party leaders have been in discussion to form an alternative unity government, an urgent requirement of a bankrupt nation to continue discussions with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout program.
Opposition parties are also concerned over military leaders making statements about public security in the absence of a civil administration.
Lawmakers have discussed Chief of Defense Staff Gen. Shavendra Silva’s statement over the weekend calling on people’s cooperation to maintain law and order, said Kavinda Makalanda, spokesperson for Premadasa.
“A civil administration is the need, not the military in a democratic country,” Makalanda said.
If opposition parties fail to form a government by the time Rajapaksa resigns, Wickremesinghe as prime minister will become acting president under the constitution. However, in line with the protesters’ demand, opposition parties are keen on not allowing him take over even as acting president.
They say Wickremesinghe should promptly resign and allow Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena take over as acting president — the next in line according to the constitution.
Rajapaksa will step down on Wednesday to allow for a smooth transfer of power, the parliament speaker announced on television late Saturday.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. was closely watching the developments and urged the government to address popular discontent.
Army Denies Firing At Protesters
The army said it only fired rounds into the air and into sidewalls to prevent angry protesters from breaching the security of the president’s compound.
“The Army categorically denies having opened fire towards the protesters,” a media statement said. “Firing into the air and sidewalls do not therefore necessarily mean that those Army personnel on duty were intent on causing deliberate harm to the protesters.”
The army’s statement follows comments on social media that troops fired live rounds at the crowds.
Fuel
Sri Lanka’s fuel distribution is limited mostly to Lanka Indian Oil Corp as stocks held by the state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corp remains depleted, according to the Energy Ministry spokesman.
A delivery of diesel from supplier Coral Energy, that was expected by July 9 has been delayed. A shipment from Vitol is due between July 11-14, while supplies of petrol from the IOC are expected to reach by July 22-23.
Coral Energy is scheduled to deliver crude oil consignments on July 15 and Aug 12, the government spokesman said, without giving details of volumes.
Fresh Gas Shipments Arrive
A ship carrying 3,700 metric tons of LPG has reached Sri Lanka Sunday, a statement from the president’s office said, adding that two more ships with the cooking gas will arrive over the next few days.
“President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has instructed the officers to carry out the unloading and distribution of LPG as soon as the first ship arrives,” the statement added.
The fresh supplies will ease the domestic cooking gas crunch by the end of the month, the president’s office said, citing the main national gas supplier, Litro Gas Company.
Rajapaksa Ally Resigns As Minister of Investment Promotion
Sri Lankan tycoon Kulappuarachchige Don Dhammika Perera, one of the country’s richest men and a close ally of the Rajapaksa family, resigned as the minister of investment promotion, local media reported.
IMF To Continue Technical Discussions
The IMF plans to continue technical discussions with counterparts in the finance and central bank, saying it was “deeply concerned about the impact of the ongoing economic crisis on the people, particularly the poor and vulnerable groups.”
The fund hopes for a resolution of the current situation that will allow for a resumption of discussions for an IMF-supported program, the officials said in a statement.
Protesters Celebrate
Protesters were celebrating into the night after hearing the news that Rajapaksa would step down as president.
Protesters Enter PM’s Official Residence
Protesters entered the official residence of the prime minister in Colombo, waving national flags, according to video footage on social media.
A smaller group also protested near Wickremesinghe’s private residence despite security officials firing tear gas, local media reported.
Political Vacuum As Talks Go On Amid Crisis
An AP report said:
Sri Lanka was in a political vacuum for a second day Monday with opposition leaders yet to agree on who should replace its roundly rejected leaders, whose residences are occupied by protesters angry over the country’s deep economic woes.
Protesters remained in President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s residence, his seaside office and the prime minister’s official home, which they stormed on Saturday demanding the two leaders step down.
The president has not been seen or heard publicly since Saturday and his location is unknown. But his office said Sunday that he ordered the immediate distribution of a cooking gas consignment to the public, suggesting that he was still at work.
Lawmaker Udaya Gammanpila said the main opposition United People’s Front and lawmakers who have defected Rajapaksa’s ruling coalition have had discussions and agreed to work together. Main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and Dullas Alahapperuma, who was a minister under Rajapaksa, have been proposed to take over as president and prime minister and have been asked to decide on how to share the positions before a meeting with the parliamentary speaker later Monday.
Sri Lanka is relying on aid from India and other nations as leaders try to negotiate a bailout with the IMF.
Protestors Find, Then Return, Millions Of Rupees In Cash
Sri Lankans who engaged in a mass protest at the Fort area took steps to inform the Central Colombo Police of a sum over Rs. 17 million being found, after which a group of Police officers attached to Fort Police station took steps to accept the funds.
Accordingly, a sum of Rs. 17,850,000/- was handed over to the Police, after a group of protestors discovered the money at the President’s House, and informed a Special Task Force member at the premises.
Central Bank Gives Rs.107bn In Printed Money To Finance Fuel Imports
After the Central Bank last week disclosed that it had received a request from the General Treasury to provide liquidity to the value of Rs.217 billion to finance fuel imports by Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), the data showed that the Central Bank had issued Rs.107 billion to CPC, on Friday.
In a special issuance of Treasury bills to the Central Bank, the government had borrowed the said amount as CPC is still undergoing an acute rupee liquidity crunch, on top of the dollar crunch, even after it raised the prices of the petroleum products to sky-high levels in multiple times, through what has now turned out to be a controversial pricing formula.
Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe, disclosing the dilemma they are facing between taming skyrocketing consumer prices and providing financing to the government’s urgent financing needs, said monetary financing or money printing is not something they like doing.
However, he said unlike in 2020 and 2021, where a colossal amount of money was printed to buy dollars from the Central Bank to settle foreign loans and also to make up for the other funding shortages of the government, today money printing happens with much restraint.
Until September last year, the Treasury bill auctions saw only a fraction of being subscribed by the market, due to the yield controls and hence the balance had to be bought by the Central Bank through printed money, which also added to the exponential monetary expansion.
However, now the monetary financing happens only when the government runs out of money to pay salaries, pensions and to provide funding to public utilities such CPC and the Ceylon Electricity Board to ensure fuel and electricity supplies.
Dr. Weerasinghe said even in the week before last, the Central Bank provided the Treasury with Rs.18.5 billion through a special bill auction for the same purpose.
Despite the intentions by the Central Bank to shrink it over Rs.2.2 trillion balance sheet, the lack of revenues generated by the government in meeting its expenditure appeared to be delaying it.
The total stock of government securities held by the Central Bank topped Rs.2.23 trillion as of last Friday, after surpassing the Rs.2.0 trillion levels on June 17.
Protesters remained in President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s residence, his seaside office and the prime minister’s official home, which they took possession of on Saturday. It was the biggest and most eventful day of protests over the past three months surrounding the administrative district in the capital, Colombo.
Sri Lanka announced in April that it was suspending repayment of foreign loans due to a foreign currency shortage. Its total foreign debt amounts to $51 billion, of which it must repay $28 billion by the end of 2027.
Months of demonstrations have all but dismantled the Rajapaksa political dynasty, which has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades but is accused by protesters of mismanagement and corruption.
There are reports that the Speaker Mahinda Abeywardana will take charge as the acting president after Gotabaya leaves office on July 13, paving way for an all-party government. Once the political situation is under control, the interim government will call for general elections to elect a new Parliament, according to a report in Hindustan Times.
A report by Sri Lankan news outlet Daily Mirror LK citing people familiar with the developments said that presidential and parliamentary elections will be held before March next year.
The appointment of Abeywardana will be temporary lasting for a period of 30 days during which parliament will select a new president.
Wickremesinghe will hold a meeting on Monday evening to discuss fuel shipments and foreign delegations which are due to arrive in the country this week.
Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa also said that if he is elected president he will appoint Dullas Allahapperuma as prime minister.
The opposition parties Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) have made it clear that neither the Rajapaksas nor Wickremesinghe should return to power.
India and several other nations have extended their full support to Sri Lanka and quashed claims that they will send troops to help restore normalcy.
Army
The Sri Lankan army refuted reports on social media that there will be a crack down on protesters and said that protesters can continue to protest peacefully without breaking the law.
Protesting against governments for human rights violations, illegal acts, war and other non-socially redeeming behavior can take many forms. Washington, like many nations’ capitals, is no exception when it comes to shaming governments, including our own, for their outrageous, illegal and immoral behavior.
Being creative with bringing a public protest has always been a challenge for any number of reasons. Massive rallies of those wishing to have their voices heard is one form. Being able to place and make permanent a form of protest is the stuff dreams are made of in any aggrieved society as a matter of keeping their issue alive in the public sphere.
In many regimes, demonstrators and activists are beaten, shot and jailed thus placing the incentive to criticize the government beyond the best interests of citizens concerned for their own personal safety. Luckily, in a democracy many forms of protest are tolerated by law and, while they may not be to the government’s liking, are allowed to proceed.
One ongoing protest that has recently taken on a new dimension of permanence is the renaming of New Hampshire Avenue NW that runs directly in front of the Saudi Embassy. Since the brutal 2018 murder and dismemberment of the Saudi American journalist at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, activists here have been honoring his memory through various means.
Initially, activist Claude Taylor and his group, Mad Dog Pac, began by manufacturing official street signs renaming streets by temporarily placing them at strategic locations as a form of protest. Along with the Saudi Embassy, the signs were erected at St John’ Church across from the White House at Lafayette Park, in Georgetown along the busy M Street corridor, and, fittingly, near the then home of Jared Kushner, a good friend of MBS.
And so, it was fitting that on June 15th a month before Biden’s Middle East trip a dedication ceremony was held to permanently rename the street in front of the embassy. Adding to the ceremony was the presence of several VIPs including, DC Councilwoman Brooke Pinto, Nobel Prize Winner Tawakkol Karman, and Executive Director of the Council on American–Islamic Relation (CAIR) Nihad Awad.
The placement of the sign on the street light post at the entrance of the embassy makes it impossible to enter or leave the building without passing it by, while for those working in the building and looking out of any of several windows the sign also acts as a constant reminder of Khashoggi’s terrible fate. The murder that was initially condemned worldwide has taken on a less important role for many countries as time has passed along with recent suspension of the case in Turkey and its transfer to Saudi Arabia.
Biden, who during his campaign promised to make the kingdom a “pariah,” has lost his initial enthusiasm to do so when faced with the reality of higher worldwide gasoline prices along with the reality that we live in a fossil fuel-based world along with new calculations in keeping good international relations with the Saudis.
His initial statement was based on intelligence reports he released in which the crown prince was named as having authorized the team of Saudi security and intelligence officials that killed Khashoggi. Many activists feel betrayed for him not sticking to his promise. It remains to be seen if he even broches the subject during his planned visit.
According to an OpEd by Biden in today’s Washington Post titled, “Why I’m Going to Saudi Arabia” Biden stated that, “In Saudi Arabia, we reversed the blank-check policy we inherited. I released the intelligence community’s report on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, issued new sanctions, including on the Saudi Arabia’s Rapid Intervention Force involved in his killing, and issued 76 visa bans under a new rule barring entry into the United States for anyone found to be involved in harassing dissidents abroad… I know that there are many who disagree with my decision to travel to Saudi Arabia. My views on human rights are clear and long-standing, and fundamental freedoms are always on the agenda when I travel abroad, as they will be during this trip, just as they will be in Israel and the West Bank.”
(This article has previously appeared Nuzeink.)
Phil Pasquini is a freelance journalist and photographer. His reports and photographs appear in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Pakistan Link and Nuze.ink. He is the author of Domes, Arches and Minarets: A History of Islamic-Inspired Buildings in America.
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An event on this scale has occurred when a large asteroid impacted the Earth, eliminating approximately 80 percent of all species. An extinction on a similar scale took place when emanations of toxic H₂S and CH₄ from blue and purple algae, accompanied by ocean acidification and oxygen depletion triggered a loss of some 57% of biological families, 83% of genera and 81% of marine species, at the Permian-Triassic boundary, 251 million years-ago.
It is inconceivable that an event on a similar scale could be developing in our lifetime, but according the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein and University of Chicago scientists who helped develop the first atomic weapons, the combination of current global heating and a nuclear catastrophe may lead to similar consequences within a “100 seconds to mid-night”.
If the history of the 21st century is ever written it would be reported that, while large parts of the planet were becoming uninhabitable, the extreme rate and scale of global warming and the migration of climate zones (>100 km per decade), the extent of polar ice melting, ocean warming and acidification and methane release from permafrost and sediments threaten to develop into one of the most extensive mass extinction events in the geological history of planet Earth .
As total concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases approaches 500 ppm CO₂-equivalents (Figure 1) (NOAA), approach double the pre-industrial age level of 280 ppm, consistent with global warming of more than >4°C, the threat of a near future atmospheric conditions as great as that of the great mass extinctions is growing.
Figure 1. This chart displays changes in the CO2-equivalent abundance and the Annual Greenhouse Gas Index (AGGI). Credit: NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory
To date there is no evidence Homo “sapiens” is capable, or even willing to take a meaningful action of stemming the greatest danger posed to advanced life on Earth since 66 million years ago. This is while most communications use the term “climate change”, the greenhouse gas heating of Earth is rising at a rate at least an order of magnitude faster than any recorded from previous warming events.
Climate scientists have either been silenced or replaced by an army of economists and politicians, many with good intentions though quantifying the cost-benefit economies of mitigation much like corner shop grocers, with limited understanding of the physics and chemistry of the atmosphere. Imagine such approach was taken in the case of medical epidemics, like COVID-19? Proposed mitigation actions are mostly focused on reduction of emissions, neglecting the amplifying feedbacks and tipping points projected by leading climate scientists such as James Hansen
At the same time as global heating is threatening the future of civilization and of numerous species, nations keep proliferating nuclear weapons. With time the probability of a nuclear accident or war increases exponentially.
At the root of the MAD (mutual assured destruction) policy, or omnicide, resides deep tribalism and herd mentality hinging on race, religion, ideology, territorial claims and the concept of an “enemy”, perpetrated by demagogues and warmongers, leading to an Orwellian 1984 world where “Oceania has always been at war with East-Asia”, as in the current “forever wars“. Promoters of war exist in every corner of the globe, while peace conferences are rarely in evidence.
As portrayed the consequences of even a “limited” nuclear war defy belief (Witze, 2020): Smoke from incinerated cities rise high into the atmosphere, wrapping the planet in a blanket of soot that blocks the Sun’s rays. The planet plunges into a deep chill. For years, crops wither from California to China. Famine sets in around the globe. This grim vision of a possible future comes from the latest studies about how nuclear war could alter world climate. They build on long-standing work about a ‘nuclear winter’ — severe global cooling that researchers predict would follow a major nuclear war, such as thousands of bombs flying between the United States and Russia. But much smaller nuclear conflicts, which are more likely to occur, could also have devastating effects around the world.”
Prior to World War I social forces collided, fascism, socialism, free enterprise, but rather than ideological differences superpower conflicts constitute blind grab for power, often using hapless proxies, but increasingly backed by the global suicide machine (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Despite significant progress in reducing nuclear weapon arsenals since the last Cold War, the world’s combined inventory of warheads remains large enough to turn much of Earth into radioactive dust.
As civilization developed since the Neolithic the wish of humans for immortality led societies to construct pyramids, undertake human sacrifice, perpetrate death to appease the gods, expressed in modern times through world wars. As stated by Albert Einstein: “The splitting of the atom has changed everything bar man’s way of thinking and thus we drift into unparalleled catastrophes”.
For an intelligent species to be able to explore the solar system but fail to protect its own home planet defies comprehension. For a species to magnify its entropic effect on nature by orders of magnitude, developing cerebral powers which allow it, in the words of Carl Sagan, to become the intelligent eyes through which the Universe explores itself, hints at yet unknown natural laws which underlie life and death, consciousness and oblivion.
We have entered the age of consequences. Will the species wake up from the nightmare of self-destruction and extinction of the living world all around us?
“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives … Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.” Carl Sagan
Figure 3. Earth as seen by Voyager 1 at a distance of 4 million miles
Andrew Glikson , Earth and climate scientist
“Each time the rains failed our tubewell came to the rescue. This time the water table went down a lot by the end of May. There was hardly any irrigation possible even for an hour. Due to this the sugarcane crop we had grown in 9 acres turned yellow. It was expected that it would rain from June 5 to 10, but only after June 25, there was some light rain. The ground was so dry that a light rain did not make any difference. Still, the sugarcane crop got some life. But this rain was not suitable for sowing the Kharif crop” says Bhaiya Lal Singh, a farmer of Baghwad village of Betul district complaining about the unpredictable monsoon.
And when it started raining finally on 1st July it poured without stopping, damaging the standing sugarcane crop. The delayed onset of the monsoon, followed by excessive rains, made it virtually impossible for thousands of farmers like Bhaiya Lal to plan the rotation of their crops.
He does not know the concept of global warming but from experience see there is something deeply wrong with the climate. At least it is no longer like it used to be for so many decades he has been a farmer. Typically according to Bhaiya Lal, recalling a 20-year period, it usually started raining around 5th June and continued till later allowing farmers to start sowing their kharif crops early. The rains usually continued till the month of September, when the crops were ripe and sometimes they were affected too but there were also benefits. The long spell of rain ensured there was no shortage of water in summer. Nowadays the rain started late and stopped early – affecting the lives of farmers across Madhya Pradesh and beyond.
Normally till June 28, MP used to receive about 120 mm of rain, but this year only 90 mm was received, a shortfall of 24 percent. The rain that was received was also not uniform across districts, with most parts of eastern MP remaining completely dry. The farmers who had sown Kharif in the first week of June expecting some rain lost their seeds and those with standing crops from before are worried about the incessant rains that started in early July.
As the globe is heating up, India’s monsoon rain patterns are changing. Experts predict that if the globe warms further, there is a chance that even the monsoon wind cycle could be switched off
During the last decade, the country witnessed very erratic monsoon seasons affecting the farming system. The monsoon rains are no longer reliable for farming. If it is heavy rain and flooding in one season, it is drought in another season, a dramatic shift in pattern that is affecting food production and security
Due to the intense heat this summer farmers expect a 40 percent drop in production of wheat, forcing the Indian government to panic and abruptly ban exports of the commodity in mid-May. Just a week before that India had claimed it had enough stocks of the commodity to ‘feed the world’, in the face of global shortages expected due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“Farmers are facing huge losses due to the changes in the monsoon cycle’ says Rajkumar Sinha, a farmer who follows meteorological information closely. He says that the longer farmers delay in understanding how climate is changing, the more damage they will have to suffer. He is among those farmers who have raised their voice against large-scale tampering with nature through urbanisation and industrialisation.
Already, due to late monsoon, the kharif sowing has been affected across MP. By the end of June, kharif crops were to be sown in more than 13 lakh hectares – going by the record from previous years. However, this year this has happened only in 9.25 lakh hectares. Farmers want to sow, but they are not getting a favourable environment.
Manoj Singh Pal, a farmer of Harda district, says that he had sown 2 quintals of soybean seed in a 5-acre field by June 12, which got spoiled because there was no rain on time. According to him the field should not remain empty, so he has to sow again after taking a loan. He says that he has suffered a loss of 12 to 15 thousand rupees per acre, including the cost of seeds. He is worried about what will happen next.
Raghunath, a farmer of Navegaon in Chhindwara, says that the maize crop was sown, which did not grow due to low rainfall. There has been a loss of Rs 15,000 per acre. Bhagat Singh Kushwaha, a farmer from Guna, says that his area is also receiving unusual rainfall. Farmers who have irrigation facilities save their crop by sowing on time. Those who do not have the means of irrigation are in trouble. Paddy was to be planted, which has not been done yet because there has been no good rain.
Balram Yadav, a farmer of Chhatarpur, says that there was light rain. It was not fit to sow. Now that the rain has started it refuses to stop, which is essential for the farmer to be able to sow the seeds. Otherwise the fields will remain empty. Had he sowed earlier too, there would have been a loss.
Even a 2°C rise in the world’s average temperatures will make India’s summer monsoon highly unpredictable according to a World Bank study[1]. At 4°C warming, an extremely wet monsoon that currently has a chance of occurring only once in 100 years, is projected to occur every 10 years by the end of the century. An abrupt change in the monsoon could precipitate a major crisis, triggering more frequent droughts as well as greater flooding in large parts of India.
According to a new assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) India’s rice production may decrease 30 per cent instead of 10 per cent if global warming over pre-industrial levels rises to 4°C from 1°C. Maize production will decrease 70 per cent instead of 25 per cent in this scenario[2].
Pooja Yadav is a researcher based in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
[1] https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/06/19/india-climate-change-impacts
[2] https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/climate-change/climate-change-induced-droughts-major-driver-of-food-insecurity-ipcc-report-81741#:~:text=In%20India%2C%20rice%20production%20may,per%20cent%20in%20this%20scenario.
On 9th July 1995, the Sri Lankan Air Force bombed the St Peter’s Church in Navaly and the nearby Sri Kathirgama Murugan Kovil, which were both sheltering displaced Tamils from army bombardment.
A total of 13 bombs were dropped on the sheltering shrines, killing 147 on the spot with many more succumbing to injuries later. The victims included men, women and children.
A ‘Pukkara’ Air Craft had dropped a cluster of many bombs on this crowd of refugees who had taken shelter in the church resulting in the death of over 65 civilians including women and children and over 150 were seriously injured sustaining the loss of limbs.
Besides many were rendered homeless as many houses were razed to the ground and others heavily damaged, including our church and priest’s house. All the people in this village have fled to safer areas as refugees.
According to eyewitnesses and survivors, on July 9 around 4.30 or 5pm, a Pukkara airplane dropped 8 to 13 bombs over Navaly, around the church, the Sri Kathirkama Murugan Hindu Temple and in residential neighbourhoods, killing hundreds of people and injuring many more.
Those killed included a four year-old, and two 68 year-olds. The Grama Niladhari (village official), who was cooking for the displaced and youth volunteers, was among the dead. About 45 of those killed are believed to have been from Navaly but most were the displaced who had come to Navaly seeking refuge.
Thirteen members of one family were killed that day. The body of one young boy was never found. A woman described how she went home and found an infant of a relative alive under the dead body of her 18 year-old daughter. Some bodies were only discovered a few days later. Bodies were strewn all over the ground, with some decapitated heads found on trees. Many bodies were burnt beyond recognition. A Catholic priest narrated that he had seen bodies and body parts scattered across the road when he was cycling to Navaly from Jaffna that evening.
“Thirteen babies were among the 65 dead found under the rubble of a Catholic church bombed by the Sri Lankan air force, an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) official said on Tuesday. ICRC field coordinator Dominique Henry said at least one bomb hit St Peter’s Church at Navali, north of Jaffna town, on Sunday, the day the armed forces launched their “Operation Leap Forward” against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The military, which said it was not aware of any church being bombed, had dropped leaflets warning civilians in the rebel-held peninsula to seek refuge in temples and churches to minimise the chance of death or injury in air strikes… `This is really a violation of humanitarian law if a civilian area has been deliberately targeted,” Henry said, adding that he had no information on whether the attack was deliberate or an accident. (Reuter 11 July 1995)
Bishop of Jaffna, Thomas Savundranayagam, 10 July 1995
In a letter dated 10 July 1995, the Bishop of Jaffna, Thomas Savundranayagam called upon President Chandrika Kumaratunga to stop these attacks on churches, temples and schools. He pointed out that at the time of bombing, displaced Tamil civilians had sought shelter in these places of worship. He wrote:
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. During the attack 65 people were killed and 150 wounded, including women and children. That evening and into the night Sri Lanka Red Cross staff evacuated most of the wounded by ambulance to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital. Delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) present the next morning at the scene of the attack noted the widespread damage and measured the extent of the tragedy: many of the bodies had not yet been removed from the rubble.
St.Peters Church and St.Peters School in Navaly at a great distance away from the line of battle and where hundreds had sought shelter was deliberately bombed on 9 July 1995. On the day after the attack, 56 bodies were retrieved from the debris, many of whom were women and children. The death toll in this incident later increased to 120. 13 babies died in their mother’s arms. Rescue workers reported torn limbs and pieces of human flesh strewn over the area.
“Pope John Paul said on Wednesday he was suffering along with the families of people killed when air force bombs hit a church in Sri Lanka.
“I want to express my deep-felt sharing in the suffering of so many people involved in the ethnic conflict that is tearing Sri Lanka apart,” he told pilgrims and tourists at his weekly general audience. “I share the grief of those who lost their loved ones in the bombing of the church and school of Navali,” he added.
Thirteen babies were among the 65 dead found under the rubble of a Catholic church bombed by the Sri Lankan air force, an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) official said on Tuesday.
The military, which said it was not aware of any church being bombed, had dropped leaflets warning civilians in the rebel-held peninsula to seek refuge in temples and churches to minimise the chance of death or injury in air strikes.
`This is really a violation of humanitarian law if a civilian area has been deliberately targeted,” Henry said.– Reuters (11 July 1995)
International Red Cross expresses concern at Navali bombing
The International Red Cross issued a Statement on 11 July 1995 on the Navali massacre:
” On 9 July the Sri Lankan armed forces launched a large scale military offensive against the positions of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) north of the city of Jaffna. The 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. During the attack 65 people were killed and 150 wounded, including women and children. That evening and into the night Sri Lanka Red Cross staff evacuated most of the wounded by ambulance to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital. Delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) present the next morning at the scene of the attack noted the widespread damage and measured the extent of the tragedy. Many of the bodies had not yet been removed from the rubble.”
“Deeply concerned by the series of violent acts that have claimed innocent victims, the ICRC call on the parties involved to respect civilian lives, property and places of refuge. It also urges them to respect the protected zone around the Jaffna Teaching Hospital and to refrain from attacking any other medical facilities.”
The message to the air force pilots was very clear – “do what you want to do, we will defend you.” Guess what? Another of those pilots decided that some school children in a remote village were an easy target. No Tigers around, to shoot his plane down; bomb them! On Sep. 22, he bombed Nagar Kovil Maha Vidyalayam killing 23 children on the spot, during their lunch break. In repeated sorties, neighbours who rushed to help the injured children were also killed.
Kumarathasan Rasingam, Secretary, Tamil Canadian Elders for Human Rights Org/
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