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Indiscriminate Aerial Bombing by the Government of Sri Lanka

February 29, 2008

I bring to your urgent attention the indiscriminate aerial bombing by the Sri Lankan government against civilians in northern Sri Lanka. Recently, Amnesty International stated that "as government forces prepare to launch major offensives against the LTTE in the North, a pattern of indiscriminate attacks by the Sri Lankan army will intensify and contribute further to spiraling civilian casualties."

Last Friday, the Sri Lankan military dropped aerial bombs on the northern district of Killinochchi, killing 8 civilians and injuring 14. A woman and two of her children were among those killed, according to the BBC. This aerial bombing draws parallels to another government bombing in August 2006 on a girls' hostel in the Mullaitivu district, also in the North, killing 53 schoolgirls.

These bombings are just a few examples of the many attacks against civilians in the North and East. Since the upsurge of violence in 2005, more than 3,000 civilians have been killed, most of whom are Tamils, according to a local human rights monitoring body. The North East Secretariat on Human Rights has documented the deaths of 165 Tamil civilians in government air raids since April 2006.

I urge the U.S. government to call on the UN for effective human rights field monitoring in Sri Lanka and to pressure the Sri Lankan government to end these attacks on civilians. I appeal to the Congressional Human Rights Caucus to investigate human rights violations and impose sanctions against Sri Lanka until it ceases indiscriminate air attacks on civilian areas in the North and East.