Tamil school bombed by Sri Lankan government

By Sujatha Fernandes

Twenty-five schoolchildren and 15 other people were killed when Sri Lankan Pucara planes bombed the Nagerkoil Central School in the Jaffna peninsula on Friday, September 22. Nearly 100 others were injured, most of them students in the same school. The bombings are part of the war being waged on the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan government after peace negotiations broke down in June.

The school was bombed at 12.50pm, during the lunch break, when several children were gathered outside. Earlier on the same day, Pucara bombers targeted Manalkadu and Katkovalam in the Vadamarachi area, killing six persons. A small Catholic church was also damaged in the bombing.

In another incident in the very early hours of the same day, the army killed seven members of the same family, including four children, in a round of intense shelling, starting at 3am and continuing until 7am.

A press release from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam states, "The intensified aerial bombing and shelling by Sri Lankan government forces came about within hours of the government's imposition of press censorship at midnight September 21."

Apart from the 68 adults and children who were killed on September 22, three others, including a boy aged nine, were killed during the previous two days in bombing raids in the Vadamarachi area which seriously injured at least 30 others.

From GLW issue 205