Amnesty condemns attack on Sri Lankan school

Human rights group Amnesty International has denounced the shelling of a school by Sri Lanka’s military as a senior Tamil Tiger rebel said 60 civilians had been killed in the artillery attack.

Scores of civilians had taken refuge from fighting between the army and Tamil guerrillas in the school inside rebel-controlled eastern Sri Lanka when it was hit yesterday, said senior rebel official Seevaratnam Puleedevan.

At least 60 civilians were killed and 150 wounded in Kithiraveli village, he said. No independent confirmation of the rebels’ casualty figure was available.

In a statement, Amnesty condemned the school attack and called for an inquiry by international and independent human rights experts, saying there was an urgent need to “respond to the dramatic deterioration of the human rights and humanitarian situation”.

Puleedevan said many of villagers were now living in makeshift tents or in the open fearing more artillery fire.

“It is a pathetic situation,” Puleedevan said. “There are more than 5,000 people there (in the village) and they are living in tremendous fear.”

Military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said he was unaware of any deaths, and accused the Tigers of using civilians as human shields, a charge the insurgents denied.

Samarasinghe said the military wasn’t targeting civilians, but admitted the army had fired artillery to silence rebels’ guns.

“Tiger shelling and mortar fire on security forces’ detachments in the east intensified on Tuesday and yesterday, compelling the army to retaliate to counter further terrorist shelling,” the defence ministry said in a statement.

Helen Olafsdottir, a spokeswoman for the foreign ceasefire monitoring mission, said monitors counted 20 bodies late yesterday, but were still investigating.

“When our monitors reached there last evening it was getting dark and they counted 20 bodies.

"They are on their way to the scene again today,” Olafsdottir said.

Toon Vandenhove, the Sri Lanka head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, declined to comment on the death toll, but confirmed his staff took 69 wounded people for medical treatment.

Puleedevan said the rebels had taken dozens of wounded to hospitals.

The Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for a separate Tamil homeland in the country’s north and east, citing discrimination by the majority Sinhalese.

The conflict killed more than 65,000 people before a Norway-brokered truce in 2002, but subsequent peace talks stalled because of disagreements over power-sharing.

Surging violence this year has killed more than 2,000 people, including civilians, soldiers and rebel fighters, and threatens a return to all-out civil war.

In the latest violence, rebels killed a soldier and wounded two others in attacks in northern Jaffna, said Samarasinghe.