MORE STATE TERRORISM: SLAF Attack Damages a Holy Cross Convent; Sri Lanka uses Cluster Bombs

SLAF Attack Damages a Holy Cross Convent; Sri Lanka uses Cluster Bombs
Dec 24, 2008,
G. Vickram - TNS
http://www.tamileelamnews.com/news/publish/tns_10692.shtml

Fresh Fighting Erupts in Northern Sri Lanka
By VOA News

Rebels examine their weapons in this handout picture released by The Liberation Tigers for Tamil Eeelam (LTTE) website Tamilnet (file photo)

Sri Lanka's military said it has killed at least 20 Tamil rebels during heavy fighting in the country's north, as part of an ongoing assault on key rebel territory.

A military statement said troops captured the village of Sinna Paranthan, northwest of the rebels' de facto capital of Kilinochchi, on Tuesday. The statement said its fighter jets launched several air strikes against rebel positions again Wednesday in the northern Paranthan and Muahamalai areas.

The rebel-affiliated Web site TamilNet said military air strikes hit a convent marked with a large red cross on its roof Tuesday. It said the strikes killed 85 cows near the convent and sent civilians fleeing from the area.

Independent verification of either side's claims is impossible because journalists are barred from entering the conflict zone.

The Tamil Tigers have been fighting since 1983 to establish an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority in the island's north. The conflict has killed more than 70,000 people.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch organization said Tuesday that Sri Lanka's government is restricting essential humanitarian aid to some 200,000 civilians displaced by the fighting.

The group called on the government to allow aid groups back into the affected regions. It said civilians displaced in these war zones face severe shortages of food, shelter, water and sanitation supplies.
CHURCH BOMBING:
Killinochchi: The Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) bombed a convent named Holy Cross Convent, located on Paranthan Mullaiththevu Road, 600 meters away from Paranthan junction Tuesday night around 10:30 p.m., a day before Christmas.

Wednesday morning witnessed that the attacked premises was marked with Red Cross on the roof. The nearby church also sustained damage. The SLAF deployed cluster munitions in the bombardment, residents who fled the site said. 85 cows of a herd a few meters away from the convent were killed in the attack.

The TNS reporters who have visited the Holy Cross Convent today have seen the extent of the damage to the Holy Cross Convent, located on Paranthan Mullaiththevu Road.

Paranthan has been bombed in more than five sorties by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers causing civilians living near the convent to flee the area. The indiscriminate bombardment has also targeted shops and other commercial establishment in Paranthan and Kumarapuram.

SLAF bombed Paranthan three times Tuesday night and twice Wednesday morning, at 7:30 a.m. and around 9:00 a.m. The bombers also attacked Kugnchup-paranthan where heavy fighting has erupted Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, a civilian government official who also fled from the SLAF attacks said, SLAF used cluster bombs in the Paranthan attack and at least 85 cows were killed nearby area in the indiscriminate attack on the Holy Cross Convent.

SLAF continuously targets civilians’ (IDP) settlements and causes high civilian casualties as well as serious damages to religious, educational and personal properties. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan security forces (SF) stepped up its artillery barrages on the civilian settlements in the area.

Sri Lanka is bent on pressing for a military victory over the Tamil Tigers and since 1972 the conflict has left at least eighty thousands people dead. Sri Lanka has been pronounced by media rights activists and rights groups as the most dangerous place in the world for journalists and aid workers to work.