Navaly church bombing

Overview

The Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Navaly, in the Jaffna Peninsula of Sri Lanka, was bombed by the Sri Lankan Air Force on the afternoon of 9 July 1995, during the Sri Lankan Civil War. At least 147 Tamil civilians who had sought shelter inside the church and its surrounding grounds were killed, including men, women and children.

Background

The bombing occurred in the context of renewed hostilities between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). On 19 April 1995, the LTTE broke an existing cease-fire by destroying two Sri Lanka Navy gunboats, SLNS Sooraya and SLNS Ranasuru, reigniting the conflict. On 9 July 1995, government forces launched Operation Leap Forward, the first phase of an offensive to retake the Jaffna Peninsula, marked by heavy artillery shelling and aerial bombardment. As a stated precaution against civilian casualties, the military had distributed leaflets urging the local population to shelter at places of worship. Hundreds of civilians took refuge at the Roman Catholic church in Navaly for safety.

The bombing

According to Daya Somasundaram, a senior professor of psychiatry at the University of Jaffna, the church was located well away from active fighting at the time of the attack. He described the bombing as a war crime committed by the Sri Lankan Air Force. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the only aid agency then operating in Tamil areas, first reported the incident and helped evacuate wounded civilians by ambulance to Jaffna Teaching Hospital. Initial reports recorded 65 killed and more than 150 injured; the death toll later rose to 147 as more victims died of their injuries, partly because the hospital could not cope with the number of casualties.

Government response and investigation

The Sri Lankan government initially denied knowledge of the bombing, later suggesting LTTE mortars or secondary explosions from LTTE ammunition dumps had caused the damage. ICRC head in Sri Lanka Marco Altherr later stated that bombs had indeed fallen on the area, citing eyewitness accounts, including from a priest at a nearby church. Red Cross officials who protested the attack were summoned by the Foreign Office and asked to withdraw their protest. Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar denied armed forces involvement and criticized the Red Cross for relying on "so-called eye witness accounts."

President Chandrika Kumaratunga issued a statement on 11 July 1995 expressing "sorrow at the loss of lives" and ordered an investigation. On 18 July 1995, the military confirmed the church had been badly damaged but said it could not confirm the origin of the bombs. In 2020, Kumaratunga acknowledged that the Air Force had carried out the bombing, describing it as a mistake, and said she had criticized the Air Force for it at the time.