- By: TAMIL INFO SERVICE [TIS] EXCLUSIVE

: : Chensolai attack by Sri Lankan Air Force : :
61 school girls were killed on 14-08-2006

61 schoolgirls killed, 129 wounded in airstrike

At least 61 schoolgirls were killed and 129 were wounded when Sri Lankan Kfir jets bombed a children's home compound in Mullaithivu district Monday morning where schoolgirls were attending a residential course on first aid, LTTE officials at the Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi said. Ambulances were rushing the wounded, many of whom are bleeding badly, to hospitals, sources said. Officials of the LTTE, briefing reporters in Kilinochchi, described the attack as “a horrible act of terror” by the Sri Lankan armed forces. UN’s child agency, UNICEF, and international truce monitors have visited the scene of the carnage.

Four Kfir jet bombers of the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) dropped 16 bombs on the premises of the Chensolai children’s home in Vallipunam on Paranthan-Mullaithivu road, killing at least 61 schoolgirls who were attending

33 bodies have been taken to Puthukudiyiruppu hospital. Other bodies, in severely damaged state, were being identified. More than 400 schoolgirls were staying in Chensolai. Kfir bombers were flown to the target without circling over the attack site, civilian sources said. 52 wounded girls were rushed to Mullaithivu hospital. 13 were admitted at Puthukudiyiruppu hospital. At least 64 wounded were taken to Kilinochchi hospital. Girls from various schools in the Mullaitivu district were staying overnight at the compound, attending a course in first-aid, LTTE officials in Kilinochchi said. [THE END]

Condemns from Tamil Nadu :

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister condemns Sri Lanka

Kalaignar M Karunanidhi, the Chief Minister (CM) of the southern Tamil Nadu state of India, has condemned the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombing, in Vallipunam in Mullaithivu district in NorthEast Sri Lanka, where tens of schoolgirls were killed and more than 100 wounded Monday. Describing the SLAF air-strike as an "atrocious and inhumane act", the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu state, home to 60 million Tamils in India, has urged the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, to request the Sri Lankan government to hold talks to settle the issue peacefully and stop killing innocent Tamils.

The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Thursday passed a resolution condemning the recent killings. Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly, R Avudiayappan, brought the condolence resolution and expressed shock and grief over the Vallipunam killings. The House condemned the killings, characterising it as "uncivilised and inhumane act" of the Sri Lankan military. "There should be a full stop to such incidents which cannot be forgiven... There cannot be two opinions on this," Chief Minister Karunanidhi as saying. [17-08-2006 / THE END]

PMK wants Centre to condemn killing of girls in Sri Lanka

Terming the killing of 61 school girls in aerial strikes in Sri Lanka as "merciless and brutal", PMK demanded the Centre condemn the incident and compel the Sri Lankan government to find a solution through talks.

PMK founder S Ramadoss said that the killings were yet another example to prove that Sri Lankan government was killing innocent Tamils and added that the international community which came forward to condemn the Lebanon attacks did not do so in the case of the Tamils.

"If the war in the island intensified, the consequences would be seen in Tamil Nadu and the number of refugees would increase," he said. Ramadoss said that the Indian government should also pressurise the Lankan government to ensure the rights of Sri Lankan Tamils. [THE END]

- PHOTOS : DPI fasting on 17-08-2006 at Chennai

- PHOTOS : Black Flag Silent Procession by Tamileela Supporting Coordinating Committee, Chennai :  20.08.2006

Condemns from United Nations :

More UN officials deplore violence in Sri Lanka as toll on children rises

Reacting to a bombing in Sri Lanka on Monday that reportedly killed dozens of children and wounded many more, two senior United Nations officials added their voices to growing international calls for the Government and separatist rebels to lay down their arms and resume talks.

Statements deploring the violence by the head of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the senior UN official dealing with children and armed conflict came one day after Secretary-General Kofi Annan raised the alarm about intensifying violence in Sri Lanka, including the weekend assassination of Ketheshwaran Loganathan, the Deputy Secretary-General of the Government Peace Secretariat and veteran Tamil human rights advocate.

UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman today called on both the Government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to “respect international humanitarian law and ensure children and the places where they live, study and play are protected from harm.”

According to press reports, as many as 40 adolescent girls were killed and some 100 children were wounded, many critically, when a compound in Vallipunam in the northern part of the country was bombed. Girls from various schools were staying overnight at the compound, attending a two-day course in first-aid.

UNICEF staff from a nearby office immediately visited the area to assess the situation and provide counselling services to those in need. MORE...

Condemns from Tamil Diaspora :

61 Thamil students killed by Sri Lankan Air-force Kfir jets bombing - Appeal by Velupillai Thangavelu, President, Tamil Creative Writers Association, Canada

Appeal has been issued by Velupillai Thangavelu, President, Tamil Creative Writers Association, Canada to the Hon. Peter Mc Kay, M.P., Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ottawa, Canada and copies of the same has been dispatched to Hon. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister, Hon. Gilles Duceppe, M.P. Leader of Bloc Québécois, Francine Lalonde, M.P. Foreign Affairs Critic Bloc Québécois and Jack Layton, M.P. Leader of the NDP. The full text of the appeal is below :

We wish to bring to your kind notice the outrageous killing of 61 students at Mullaitivu by Sri Lankan Air Force planes on the early morning of August 14, 2006 at Mullaitivu in Northern Sri Lanka. Another 100 students got badly injured. The supersonic Kfir jet planes dropped 16 bombs within minutes. The students killed and injured in Monday's Kfir attack were participants in a 10-day residential Leadership, Self-Awareness and First Aid workshop. More than 400 G.C.E. A/L students from 18 schools in Kilinochchi, Mullaithivu, and Oddusuddan Educational Zones participated in the workshop.

Defence Affairs Spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella told BBC that the bombing was deliberate and planned which he dishonestly claimed it as a LTTE training camp.

You will agree that targeting and killing children is the most horrendous crime on earth. It is against all norms of any military conflict and tantamount to commitment of war crimes punishable under Humanitarian Law.

International ceasefire monitors who visited the site of the Sri Lankan air-strike on Monday said they couldn’t find “any evidence of military installations or weapons.” Head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Ulf Henricsson, said monitors who visited Chencholai school after the air-strike said they found at least 10 bomb craters and an unexploded bomb. “It was not a military installation, we can see [that],” Mr. Henricsson told Sri Lanka’s MTV television.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Ann M. Veneman, UNICEF Executive Director in a press release on Tuesday described the killing of 61 schoolgirls as a "shocking result of the rising violence.”

You will recall when the Liberal government was in power it took steps to promote Canadian federal constitution as a way of finding a solution to the festering ethnic conflict. For this purpose the Forum for Federation was established with Hon. Bob Rae, former Premier of Ontario, as its first Chairman. Unfortunately, Mahinda Rajapakse who got elected as president in November 2005 has jettisoned federalism lock, stock and barrel. He has said no to federalism, no to Homeland, no to right to self-determination to the Thamils. In fact, this he made it clear in his election manifesto (Mahinda Chintanaya) that he and his party stood for a unitary constitution, he will expel Norway as facilitator and tear up the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) signed between Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and LTTE chief Veluppillai Prabhakaran. To Rajapakse’s credit he kept his word and the country is now back to full scale war. Since his assumption of office more than 1,500 civilians have died and several more disappeared at the hands of the Sinhala army.

In a way the listing of the LTTE as a proscribed organization by the Conservative Government has emboldened the GOSL to commit these war crimes!

Hence we are appealing to you as Minister of Foreign Affairs to condemn the wanton killing of 61 Thamil students and pressure the GOSL to kick-start the stalled peace talks. Only a negotiated political settlement according to the agreed terms of the 2002 Oslo Declaration and based on democratic principles and rule of law can achieve an equitable and long-lasting resolution to the bloody conflict that has divided the island nation for far too long. Thank you. [THE END]

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