The Massacre of innocent School girls Sri-Lanka

Arial Terror and massacre of innocents

The massacre of innocent schoolgirls - Sri-Lanka

It was 06.40-45 a.m. on Monday, August 14th 2006

Four Israeli built K-fir bombers appeared suddenly on the skies above a place called Vallipunam in Mullativu District in the North Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. It is believed that the planes had stared out from Trincolalee and flown north over the sea and turned westwards towards Mullaitivu.

The aircraft were spot on. Instead of hovering in the air for a while as most bombers do before releasing their deadly cargo these planes set about their task quickly and precisely. Like the four horsemen of the apocalypse these agents of death and destruction dropped their bombs below.

Seriously injured victims

With each K-fir dropping four bombs a total of 16 was dropped in a matter of minutes. There was a cluster of small buildings and a large number of Human beings on the ground. Some of the bombs hit the groups of human with pin point precision while others hit buildings and clumps of trees. People apparently were the prize target while buildings and trees were collateral damage.

Except for one which failed to explode the other 15 wreaked havoc. The human targets most of them teenaged girls ran in fear seeking refuge as aerial terror rained on them. Frenzied pandemonium reigned. The planes that dropped the bombs were also visually recording the desperate scene below with their sophisticated visual recording equipment. The four planes then turned back after accomplishing their mission of aerial terror.

It was hell on earth below. More than 200 teenaged students were victims. Bodies lay in pools of blood with mangled flesh and limbs strewn around. At least 30 to 35 were killed on the spot. The death tally increased as victims were taken to hospital. By evening the death count was reportedly 61. Around 260-275 were injured.

In addition to Government hospitals some were treated at private clinics too. Some with comparatively minor injuries got treatment and retuned home.

Some 155 seriously injured victims were hospitalized. They were warded at the Mullaitivu, (52), Kilinochchi (64), Tharmapuram (26) and Puthukudiyiruppu (13) hospitals. Many of the victims according to UNICEF officials had lost their limbs. The condition of about 40 of these victims was extremely serious. Unconfirmed reports by Thursday, 17 night said that the number of death was nearing 90.

UNICEF Kilinochchi Head Penny Brune and SLMM Kilinochchi monitor Matti Vaniopaa inspected the massacre site and visited the hospitals where the injured girls were being treated. UNICEF also provide fuel and medicine to expedited and aid the medical treatment given to the victims.

Observations

The SLMM later observed that the place was not a military installation. The SLMM also said that 10 large craters had been made by the bombs. UNICEF went on record that schoolgirls had been killed and injured in the incident and that there was no evidence of the victims being LTTE cadres.

In terms of Human cost and suffering the incident was terrible. Yet the Colombo based media with a few honorable exceptions downplayed the incident. The focus was more on the claymore terror in Kollupitiya which killed seven and injured 10 rather than the K-fir terror that killed 61 and injured 155. Even the official statements of countries like the USA and India were concerned with the attack on the Pakistani envoy and ignored the Mullaitivu bombing.

UN officials were more concerned than Colombo based diplomats. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was increasingly alarmed at the ongoing violence in Sri Lanka said a press release. He is profoundly concerned at the rising death toll, including the seven people killed in a bomb attack in Colombo today, and reports of dozens of students killed in a school as a result of air strikes in the north-east. Noted the communique.

UNICEF executive Director Ann M. Veneman called on both the government and the LTTE to respect international humanitarian law and ensure children and the places were they live, study and play are protected from harm. A UNICEF statement pointed out, The bombing on Monday of a Vallepuram compound in Mullitivu District that reportedly killed dozens of girls and wounded many more is a shocking result of the rising violence in Sri Lanka. These children are innocent victims of violence, noted Veneman.

Quick reaction

Diaspora Tamils and those of Tamil Nadu were quick to react. The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly passed a unanimous resolution condemning the incident and expressing condolences. Many political parties including the Indian Communist and Marxist parties issued statements.

Reinforcing the cliché about truth being the first casualty in times of war is the spin being put on the incident by both the government and LTTE. The government, particularly its hyper cabinet Spokesperson on Defense Affairs Keheliya Ramnukwella says that the bombed site was a Tiger transit training camp and those killed and injured were child soldiers. When evidence to the country is pointed out Rambukwella and other defense spokespersons go off at a tangent making bizarre arguments in support of their case. However much the government may try to justify the incident the plain, harsh truth is that aerial terror has been unleashed to perpetrate a massacre of innocents.

School girls

Let us take the Sencholai girls orphanage first. Setting up of Sencholai for children orphaned by the war was a brainchild of LTTE supreme Velupillai Pirapaharan. It was set up in Sandilipay in Jaffna peninsula in 1991. It was relocated to Kilinichchi in 1995 and to Mullaitivu Dristrict in 1998. As time went on other social service institutions were also set up. The orphanage for boys for instance was called Kantharuban Arivucholai.

Some of these institutions were housed at a place called Vallipunam. It is about five miles from Puthukudiyiruppu along the Mullaitivu Paranthan road. Vallipunam originally had chena cultivation and hence its name. Later several large farms owned by Jaffna Tamils came into being. A rain fed tank Naddalmottankulam helped irrigate fields.

There were teak and cashew groves in addition to livestock, paddy and cash crops in the vicinity at one time. To its interior lies thick jungle infested by elephants. The postal address of Vallipunam falls under Viswamadhu.

Five institutions were housed within a one mile radius in Vallipunam after the tsunami. They were the

1. Sencholai orphan girl's home with 245 children.

2. The Bharathy Illam girls home for girls physically affected by the war and the tsunami where there were 160 girls.

3. The Iniya Vaalvu illam which was a home for deaf and blind children and had 78 children.

4. The Vasanthan children's home with 60 girls for children mentally challenged due to the war and tsunami

5. The Senthalir home for very young children with 120 children.

The area in which four institutions were housed was called peace village. The Senthalir home for very young orphaned children was also in the vicinity but not within the peace village premises. It was earlier in Mullaitivu town area and was hit by the tsunami. Scores of young kids perished. Vallipunam was in the interior and away and from tsunami reach.

Senthalir run by agencies

Senthalir reportedly is run by agencies independent of the LTTE or its affiliates. The Bharathy and Iniya Valvu illam homes were run by the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) while the other two including Sencholai were directly run by the LTTE. The location and description of the peace village and its inmates were well known to the government and NGOs and international aid organizations. Many NGO representatives often visited the place.

The Sencholai however was relocated to place on Iranaimadhu road in Kilinochchi in January this year. LTTE chief himself formally declared the new campus open. The new campus contains 11 residential blocks for different age groups. It also contains a special block for infants, dining, study halls and two kitchens. The campus also has an administration block, a skills development centre, a cultural hall, a heath centre and a library. The programme for building the campus started in June 2003. Plans of adding computer facilities, audio-visual facilities and other features to the new campus are being worked out.

Through the orphanage proper moved to Kilinochchi in January the older campus remained as sencholai still. Through not utilized fully it was used at times to house woman members of the people's militia for physical training.

Picnic Venue

On some occasions even Sencholai kids were brought here for week end as a form of a picnic or excursion. In recent times the LTTE was also contemplating a relocation of Sencholai to its former venue because it thought Kilinochchi would be targeted indiscriminately in an escalating conflict.

Among the various administrative structures the LTTE has is the Tamil Eelam Education Board. The education board has very little independent resources and relies mainly on the Government's educational infrastructure and personnel to implement its projects. As is typical of many things in Tiger controlled regions a curious parallel administrative network is in force.

One project envisaged by the TE educational board was a residential workshop for teenaged schoolgirls. With the conflict escalating and bombing and shelling on the rise the need for first aid knowledge and disaster coping techniques was essential. It was decided to hold a residential workshop for 10 days to focus on these matters. It was organized by the TE educational board in association with zonal education departments and the principal associations. It was funded by an NGO called the Centre for Women's Rehabilitation and Development (CWRD). The 10day workshop was held at the old Sencholai campus in Vallipunam on August 11 and was scheduled to end on August 20.

"The workshop aimed at developing student leaders by building self confidence through understanding self, building inter-personal relationship, knowing leadership qualities, effective time management, helping self and others by learning fist aid, and learning principals of gender equality," said V. Illankumaran in an interview to the Tamilnet website.

Participants were selected from eighteen schools in Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi and Oddusuddan. The respective schools were Paranthan Hindu Maha Vidyalayam (MV), Kandawalai MV, Murasumottai MV, Tharmapuram MV, Piramathanaaru MV, Bharathy MV, Viswamadhu MV, Udaiyarkattu MV, Iranaippaalai MV, Mullaithivu MV, Semmalai MV, Kumulamunai MV, Vattraappalai MV, Oddusuddan MV, Valathukarai Muthaiyan Kaddu MV, Katsilaimadhu Govt Tamil mixed school, Vithiyananda Kalloori, and Puthukudiyiruppu Central College.

Only the brightest and best girl students from the GCE OL and AL classes were selected. In addition some seniors in Sencholai were also enrolled. Many parents were reluctant to send their young teen aged daughters for a residential workshop. But since the LTTE was behind the whole project neither the parents nor the teachers or for that matter the students had a choice

400 school girls at the workshop

About 400 students ranging from the ages 14 of 21 participated at the workshop. The day began with assembly at 07.00 a.m. and ended with lights out at 9.30 p.m. Apart from leadership training, first aid measures etc. there was also disaster management techniques pertaining to natural calamities like fire and floods, tsunami, aerial bombardment and shelling etc. There was also time for games, singing, debates, drama, poetry etc. Great emphasis was laid on practical training in first aid.

Some of the instructors were from the LTTE's medical corps. There were also other senior ex-Tigers woman cadres as instructors in addition to school teachers. Parents were allowed to visit the participants in the evening and those from distances were allowed to sleep in the premises. It was a pleasant school boarding house like atmosphere that prevailed.

Monday, August 14th was the fourth day of the workshop. The itinerary on that day was something like this; 7 a.m. assembly; 7.15 to 8.00 physical exercises; 8.00 8.30 breakfast; 8.30 to 9.30 self -confidence and personality development; 9.30 to 10.30 artificial respiration training; 10.30 11.00 interval; 11.00 01.00 first aid practicals; 1-2.00 p.m. lunch; 2- 3.00 rest; 3 4.00 lecture on determining your future; 4 - 4.30 tea; 4.30 -5.30 games; 5.30 6.00 break; 6.00 7.30 poetry reading; 7.30 8.30 dinner; 8.30 recreation 9.30 lights out. Alas this time table turned terrible that bloody Monday.

The girls were moving to the middle compound for assembly to being at 7.00 a.m. They were chatting to each other in scattered, small groups. One large group was huddled around a radio listening intently to the news. It was then that death and destruction came down from the skies. It was the group listening to the radio that suffered greatly. The identities of all victims are yet to be established

Realizing perhaps the depth of feeing among families the Tigers did not try to derive propaganda mileage by staging mass funerals. Instead they allowed families to take the bodies and hold individual funerals. The Wanni in particular and Tamil areas in general are in a mournful atmosphere. The victims were not Tigers but teen aged students. The massacre of innocent schoolgirls through aerial bombardment is nothing less than a war crime or crime against humanity.

When all this human suffering took place, Colombo was busy preparing for the Asian games. With dances and fire display people were happy to watch the opening ceremony of the Asian games. The media high lighted several groups of school girls dancing at the stadium while the massacre of innocent school girls took place in the north of this same island. Even today nobody is hardly worried about this crime.

Will justice be done?

Report a news collection from daily papers

Prepared By Fr Nandana Manatunga

Human Rights Media resource Center- Kandy Sri-Lanka

nandmana@sltnet.lk