Sri Lanka: Demand an end to attacks on civilians - call for investigation and prosecution

A bomb (June 15th) planted by LTTE on a bus killed 64, including 15 children, while the Sri Lankan Navy attacked a church (on June 17th) packed with refugees in Mannar killing 5 and injuring 44 . The extent of violence is manifested in the over 3000 refugees who have already fled to India in addition to thousands of displaced persons who wanted to flee to India but have either been captured or kept by force in temporary shelters in Mannar by the Sri Lankan government. From December 2005 to mid June 2006, 519 innocent civilians have been killed and many thousands uprooted from their homes in the north and east.

Additionally, there has been a series of predetermined attacks on women and children. On June 8th 2006, a young mother, Mary Madeline and her husband and two children were brutally tortured and murdered in their home in Vankalai, Mannar. Tamil women in the north, for example, have been raped and murdered by Sri Lankan soldiers in retaliation against attacks by the LTTE. Some women who survived such malicious acts and took their attackers to the courts have been subsequently harassed. Some are missing to this day. Now the Sri Lankan Army has decided that its soldiers will conduct operations wearing masks – making the victims now unable to even identify the perpetrators of violence.