Chencholai bombing

The Sri Lankan government claimed to have been monitoring the site since 2004, that it was a training camp and clearly was not a mistaken or wrong target.{{cite web | title='LTTE orphanage was a military camp' | website=Hindustan Times | date=15 Aug 2006 | url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/ltte-orphanage-was-a-military-camp/story-8x1j3wvU4NKPYIZeZ05UjI.html | access-date=15 Aug 2023}}{{cite web | title=Chencholai Girls Complex Deliberately Bombed By Sri Lankan Air Force | website=Countercurrents | date=10 Jul 2022 | url=https://countercurrents.org/2022/07/chencholai-girls-complex-deliberately-bombed-by-sri-lankan-air-force/ | access-date=20 Aug 2023}}

The Tamil Nadu state assembly in India passed a resolution termed the Chencholai orphanage bombing as 'uncivilized, barbaric, inhumane and atrocious'.

[http://in.news.yahoo.com/060817/43/66qwy.html Tamil nadu government slams bombing] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060828020808/http://in.news.yahoo.com/060817/43/66qwy.html |date=August 28, 2006 }}

The human rights organisation University Teachers for Human Rights stated the LTTE had organized a first-aid class and that the children were not child soldiers. It said the camp was used by LTTE but not as a training camp.{{cite web |date=23 August 2006 |title=Special Report No. 22: Hubris and Humanitarian Catastrophe |url=https://www.uthr.org/SpecialReports/spreport22.htm#_Toc144057325 |website=UTHR(J)}}

A United Nations spokeswoman, Orla Clinton, said the students killed in the attack were between 16 and 18, A-level students, from the Kilinochichi and Mullaittivu areas and were attending a two-day training course.{{cite web|url=http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/1567|title=Sri Lankan air force bombing kills scores of students |website=Asiantribune.com|accessdate=2 August 2017}}

The Tamil National Alliance condemned the airstrike: "This attack is not merely atrocious and inhuman – it clearly has a genocidal intent. It is yet another instance of brazen state terrorism,”{{cite web|url=https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=19229|title=Sencholai attack 'pre-meditated, deliberate and vicious' |website=Tamilnet (TNA) |accessdate=4 August 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://www.tamilguardian.com/content/sri-lankan-airstrike-kills-55-girls|title=Sri Lankan airstrike kills 55 girls |website=Tamilguardian.com|accessdate=2 August 2017}}

The Director of Education for Kilinochchi district, T. Kurukularajah, and the Director of Education for Mullaitivu district, P. Ariyaratnam, confirmed the school girls' names.{{cite web |date=18 August 2006 |title=Sencholai air-strike killed 55, details released |url=https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=19281 |accessdate=3 July 2021 |publisher=Tamilnet}}{{cite web |date=13 August 2015 |title=14 Aug 2006: 53 Tamil school girls killed by Sri Lankan air strike on children's home |url=https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/14-aug-2006-53-tamil-school-girls-killed-sri-lankan-air-strike-childrens-home |accessdate=3 July 2021 |publisher=Tamil Guardian}}

UNICEF staff from a nearby office immediately visited the compound to assess the situation and to provide fuel and supplies for the hospital as well as counselling support for the injured students and the bereaved families. Ann M. Veneman, UNICEF Executive Director, stated, "These children are innocent victims of violence". UNICEF's Joanne Van Gerpen stated, "At this time, we don't have any evidence that they are LTTE cadres".{{cite web|url=http://www.unicef.org/media/media_35336.html|title=UNICEF: Children are victims of the conflict in Sri Lanka|website=Unicef.org|accessdate=2 August 2017|archive-date=8 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708041800/https://www.unicef.org/media/media_35336.html|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/sri_lanka_35357.html|title=Sri Lankan schoolgirls killed and injured amid escalating violence|website=Unicef.org|accessdate=2 August 2017|archive-date=14 January 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114233639/http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/sri_lanka_35357.html|url-status=dead}}

A retired major general of the Swedish Army, Ulf Henricsson, was the head of the Nordic truce monitors SLMM and said that his staff had not finished counting the dead and that they could not find any sign of military installations or weapons.{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4794827.stm | work=BBC News | title=Dispute over Sri Lanka air raids | date=2006-08-15 | accessdate=2010-04-28}}

The Sri Lanka government spokesmen Keheliya Rambukwela and Brigadier Athula Jayawardene told the media in Colombo that the orphanage had in fact been a training and transit camp for the LTTE's military cadres. The camp, Jayawardene pointed out, did not look like an orphanage at all or any other civilian structure for that matter. Rambukwela and Jayawardene argued that even if the victims were minors (under 18 years of age) and girls, they were soldiers or soldiers under training. The Sri Lankan refused to condemn the incident or to order any inquiry. The government also showed journalists, as Reuters reported, what appeared to be satellite footage of Tigers fleeing a training camp shortly after Kfir jets had bombed it.{{cite news|url=http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-08-15T095840Z_01_SP305866_RTRUKOC_0_UK-SRILANKA-ENEMY.xml|title=Sri Lanka says age of enemy no concern|publisher=Reuters|date=August 15, 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070506120322/http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews|archive-date=May 6, 2007}}

However, a journalist who viewed the tapes stated: {{Cquote|there was nothing in the footage that reporters could see to suggest any military activity except that the location was secluded and had lush green trees in the neighbourhood.{{cite news|url=https://mg.co.za/article/2006-08-15-unicef-bombed-orphans-were-not-tamil-tigers|title=Unicef: Bombed orphans were not Tamil Tigers|publisher=Mail and Guardian Online|date=August 15, 2006}}}}

On September 1, Sri Lankan police said they arrested three young women, aged 18, 19 and 20, who they said were injured in the airstrike and were subsequently brought to a hospital in central Sri Lanka for treatment. Inspector General of Police Chandra Fernando said the young women claimed that they were taken by a member of the Tamil Tigers to a camp deep within rebel territory for first aid training – but when they reached the camp, they were forced to undergo weapons training.{{cite news|url=http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/01/asia/AS_GEN_Sri_Lanka_Rebels_Arrested.php|title=Police in Sri Lanka arrest 3 suspected female rebels at hospital|publisher=International Herald Tribune|date=September 1, 2006}}

A Sri Lankan commission of inquiry was headed by Justice Udalagama to investigate 16 high-profile human rights cases but could finish only 7 cases before it had been disbanded and exonerated the government {{cite book|author=Patrick Peebles|title=Historical Dictionary of Sri Lanka|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=50igCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA89|accessdate=3 July 2021|date=2015|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|isbn=978-1-4422-5585-2|pages=89–}} based on statements of the three arrested girls one of whom came before the commission and other from hospital, the third girl died.{{cite web | url=https://www.sundaytimes.lk/090621/News/sundaytimesnews_16.html | title=The Commission acted as a deterrent: Justice Udalagama | publisher=Sunday Times | date=21 June 2009 | accessdate=3 July 2021}}

In the Senchcholai complex in Vallipunam in the Mullaithivu district hundreds of female students from 17 to 20 were gathered on 10 August 2006 for a weeklong training in leadership and first aid, which was intended for preparing the students for leadership in their school and community during the impending war.[http://www.nesohr.org/files/Lest_We_Forget-II.pdf Senchcholai bombing – 14 August 2006], NESOHR.org; accessed August 2, 2017.

On 14 August 2006, around 7.30 am, Sri Lankan Air Force carried out extensive bombing. 52 students and two staff were killed, and 130 students were seriously injured. Many more received minor injuries. Three of the injured girls lost one leg and another girl lost an eye.{{cn|date=August 2023}}

A further three of the injured girls were sent by the Mullaithivu hospital to Kandy for treatment. Sri Lankan Terrorism Investigation Department (TID) then arrested them. They were eventually cleared and brought to Vavuniya hospital to return to their homes in Vanni when one of the injured girls, Thambimuttu Thayalini, died.{{cite web | url=http://www.padippakam.com/document/ltte/HR_Report01/Sensolai.pdf | title=Inhuman politics with a human tragedy An appeal for international intervention | publisher=NESHOR | accessdate=3 July 2021}} The other two girls were immediately taken back Kandy hospital. Eventually, the whereabouts of the two girls, Kasthuri Sripathy and Sumithra Balasingham, became mysterious except that their parents were permitted to meet the girls at prearranged locations. The parents of the girls remained at a loss as to the detention of the two girls without charges for almost two years.[https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/the-2006-senchcholai-massacre-an-ominous-sign-of-an-impending-human-catastrophe-engineered-by-an-evil-regime/ The 2006 Senchcholai Massacre: An Ominous Sign Of An Impending Human Catastrophe Engineered By An Evil Regime]

• List of attacks on civilians attributed to Sri Lankan government forces
• Operation Carthage

{{Reflist}}

{{Portal|Sri Lanka}}

• [http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=19313 Air-strike victims photos]
• [http://www.padippakam.com/document/ltte/HR_Report01/Sensolai.pdf NESHOR Press release]

{{Sri Lankan Civil War}}

{{coord missing|Sri Lanka}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chencholai Bombing}}

Category:Aerial bombing in Sri Lanka

Category:Attacks on civilians attributed to the Sri Lanka Air Force

Category:2000s massacres of the Sri Lankan civil war

Category:Mass murder in 2006

Category:Mass murder of Sri Lankan Tamils

Category:Massacres of women

Category:Sri Lankan government forces attacks in Eelam War IV

Category:Terrorist incidents in Sri Lanka in 2006

Category:Child murder in Sri Lanka

Category:School bombings in Sri Lanka

Category:School massacres in Asia

Category:Violence against Indigenous women

Category:Violence against women in Sri Lanka

Category:August 2006 in Sri Lanka

Category:2006 airstrikes

Category:Attacks on orphanages

Category:Incidents of violence against girls

Category:Attacks on schools in 2006