Action Alert ArchiveStop attacks on childrenJune 19, 2008 I am writing to call your attention to the recent and ongoing attacks targeting children in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government has shown increasing disregard for the lives of children. This past week, two Sri Lanka Air Force Kfir jets bombed a preschool area in Kilinochchi. Thirty-five children barely escaped the bombardment, which caused severe damage to the school and homes in the area. The North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESOHR), a local human rights monitoring group, reported that on January 29, a bus in Mannar carrying school children and teachers came under claymore attack, reportedly conducted by the Sri Lanka Military's Deep Penetration Unit. Of the 20 civilians killed, 13 were school children aged between 10 and 16. NESOHR reported last November that seven students were killed and two more injured in a claymore mine attack by the Sri Lanka Military's Deep Penetration Unit. The father of two of the children killed, aged 15 and 16, said following the attack, "We are living here in perpetual fear of aerial bombing and claymore attacks." The children had been travelling in an ambulance to participate in a first aid program, the report added. Attacks on children are widespread and most of them go unreported. I am calling on the United States government to pressure Sri Lanka to accept international human rights monitors, which could end the prevailing culture of immunity. |
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