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| The report further stated that in the meantime a commemoration relay fast was taking place all over ] for ] rebel ] cadre ]. There was also a decorative tent (known as a Pandal in the local ] language) near the school over which the bombers had been active. Several children who had come out of school had sheltered under a tree near the decorative tent waiting for the bombers to leave.<ref name="UTHR1/7/12"/> | The report further stated that in the meantime a commemoration relay fast was taking place all over ] for ] rebel ] cadre ]. There was also a decorative tent (known as a Pandal in the local ] language) near the school over which the bombers had been active. Several children who had come out of school had sheltered under a tree near the decorative tent waiting for the bombers to leave.<ref name="UTHR1/7/12"/> | ||
| According to the same report at about 12.45 pm a bomb fell among the people under the tree, instantly killing 24 children and 15 others. The decorative tent was said to have been slightly damaged. Several of the corpses were beyond recognition and were identified by their possessions. The injured continued to die on subsequent days bringing the total dead to well over 50.<ref name="UTHR1/7/12"/> 10 years later ] published a report of some of identified dead students as | According to the same report at about 12.45 pm a bomb fell among the people under the tree, instantly killing 24 children and 15 others. The decorative tent was said to have been slightly damaged. Several of the corpses were beyond recognition and were identified by their possessions. The injured continued to die on subsequent days bringing the total dead to well over 50.<ref name="UTHR1/7/12"/> | ||
| ===Casualties=== | |||
| 10 years later ] published a report of some of identified dead students as | |||
| *Tharmalingam Usanthini (13) | *Tharmalingam Usanthini (13) | ||
Revision as of 14:58, 13 January 2007
Nagerkovil school bombing is the bombing of Nagerkovil (also Nagarkovil) government central school in Jaffna that lead to the death of over 50 minority Sri Lankan Tamil people and injuries to over 150. Sri Lankan government accepts that its bombers did indeed bomb the location but disputes that those who died were civilians.
Incident
According to UTHR a human rights agency that reports regualarly about the Sri Lankan civil war, on 22nd September 1995, there was intense aerial activity by the Sri Lankan Airforce around the Nagarkovil school area. Seeing bomber activity overhead the principal and staff of Nagarkovil school did not act decively to let the children go home early. In the prevailing state of anxiety with no clear instruction to children, when the junior school broke at 12 noon, the children began moving home and the senior boys remained.
The report further stated that in the meantime a commemoration relay fast was taking place all over Jaffna for martyred rebel LTTE cadre Thileepan. There was also a decorative tent (known as a Pandal in the local Tamil language) near the school over which the bombers had been active. Several children who had come out of school had sheltered under a tree near the decorative tent waiting for the bombers to leave.
According to the same report at about 12.45 pm a bomb fell among the people under the tree, instantly killing 24 children and 15 others. The decorative tent was said to have been slightly damaged. Several of the corpses were beyond recognition and were identified by their possessions. The injured continued to die on subsequent days bringing the total dead to well over 50.
Casualties
10 years later Tamilnet published a report of some of identified dead students as
- Tharmalingam Usanthini (13)
- Markandu Nagalogini (10)
- Thamotharam Sakunthala (12)
- R. Regina (11)
- Pologarajah Thushanthini (14)
- Ravindran Amirtha (10)
- Balachandran Rajitha (10)
- Navaratnasamy Umathevy (12)
- Suntharalingam Palani (15)
- Suntharalingam Tharsini (14)
- Kugasaravanamalai Tharsini (13)
- Rajeev Gandhi Venu (11)
- Krishnagopal Thavaseelan (13)
- Rajaratnam Kavitha (10)
- Nagamutthu Senthilvel (15)
- Alfonse Amalaviji(14)
- Mahalingam Sanmugavadivelan(16)
- R. Sumithra(10)
- K. Methini(14)
- Navamany Mithura(14)
- Sellam(15)
- Ragavan(16)
- Thangarasa Vasanthakumar(06)
- Mylvaganam Gananathan(14)
- Ranjithkumar Rajitha(11)
Reactions
File:Msf logo.gifMedicines Sans Frontiers
The first international agency to report on the incident was MSF. According to MSF on September 23 that of 117 injured Tamil civilians admitted to hospital during a government offensive in the rebel controlled Jaffna peninsula on Thursday and Friday more than half had died from their wounds. In a report it said In a new offensive against Tamil rebels, Sri Lankan warplanes have bombed civilian targets, killing at least 42 children. Two surgeons from French medical agency Medecins Sans Frontierers worked through the night at Point Pedro's Manthikai hospital carrying out 22 amputations, four cases of both legs. Ten of the amputees were under 12
Sri Lankan government
Initially the government denied it ever bombed the school and no immediate investigations were reported. It said it was an LTTE propaganda to discredit its military actions.
After the publication of Medicines Sans Frontiers report about the incident it lated admitted that its Airforce bombers may have bombed the institution but it was in reality a rebel LTTE camp and those who died were LTTE cadres not students of the school.
Subsequantly the government clarified that that those who died were commemorating the death of LTTE member Thileepan and were LTTE members not students.
United Nations
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The Director-General of UNESCO Fredrico Mayor condemned the Nagerkoil bombing by low flying Argentinian built Pucara aircraft:
I condemn in the strongest terms this attack on a school where innocent children were killed. Whatever the political situation in a country nothing justifies attacks on educational institutions.
File:Human Rights Watch banner.gifHuman Rights Watch
The 1996 HRW annual country report mentioned that on September 22, 1995 as the Sri Lankan Army launched a major offensive on the Jaffna peninsula, the government imposed censorship curbs on war-related reporting, citing national security concerns and fear that reporting would inflame communal tensions.
Those restrictions were lifted for foreign media four days later, but curbs on the domestic media remained in force. Among the first stories to be subjected to these censorship requirements were reports that on September 21 and 22, heavy shelling and aerial attacks by government forces on the northern Jaffna region had killed some seventy civilians, including many school children.
A Reuter news story from September 23, which noted that the army had initially denied the incident, also indicated that the story had been "subjected to military censors, who deleted quotes from civilians on the reported deaths of twenty children
See also
References
- "Navy assault on fishermen". Sri Lanka monitor. Retrieved 2006-01-08.
- ^ "1995 UTHR report". UTHR. Retrieved 2006-01-11.
- "Nagarkovil bombing remembered". Tamilnet.com. Retrieved 2006-01-12.
- ^ "Nagarkovil bombing". Tamilcanadian.com. Retrieved 2006-01-12.
- "Human Rights Development - Sri Lanka". HRW. Retrieved 2006-01-11.