Aid to the Church in Need: Sir Lanka: Bishop says: “Stop the bombs”

Sir Lanka: Bishop says: “Stop the bombs”

Posted by Press release on 16/1/2009, 3:34 pm
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ACN News, Friday, 16th January 2009 – SRI LANKA

Bishop says: “Stop the bombs”

Sri Lankan bishop returns from secret mercy dash to war-torn region

A BISHOP in northern Sri Lanka has appealed to the country’s president to stop bombing civilians after carrying out an undercover mercy mission to help people trapped in a war-zone.
Denied formal access to the northerly Vanni district affected by fighting between government troops and rebels, Bishop Thomas Savundaranayagam of Jaffna travelled incognito to see the situation for himself and assess the people’s needs.
During his visit last month, he distributed emergency help given by Aid to the Church in Need, the Catholic charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians.
His visit coincided with the renewal of hostilities after Colombo-based government forces successfully seized control of Vanni following the capture of Kilinochy and Paranathan.

(Bishop Thomas Savundaranayagam)

In a message to ACN announcing the aid distribution, he described seeing crowds of displaced people living in very cramped conditions.
The people had fled villages caught up in the conflict between the army and the Tamil Tiger rebels.
Bishop Savundaranayagam, whose diocese covers northern Sri Lanka including the Jaffna peninsula, said that priests and nuns in Vanni were living alongside lay people in small huts.
He explained that the ACN aid was being distributed by the clergy who were desperately trying to assist the people in any way possible.
The trip led the bishop to write an urgent request to Sri Lanka’s president, Mahinda Rajapakse, begging that civilians be protected from further military action.
Writing to the president, he described how “owing to the on-going shelling and aerial bombings by Sri Lankan Security Forces… people are getting killed and [are] sustaining injury.”
Bishop Savundaranayagam begged the government not to attack churches and temples where displaced people were being urged to gather for their protection.
In his letter to President Rajapakse he wrote: “Churches and temples are traditionally places of refuge in time of danger.
“Hence I am pleading with the government to desist from firing mortar shells at the places of worship and stop aerial bombings at civilian places.”
He underlined that the government was duty-bound to open a safe corridor for people to escape places affected by shelling.
The bishop has also criticised the rebels for failing to provide safe passage for civilians.
Speaking to ACN from Jaffna on Tuesday (13th January), the bishop described how the government had not stopped the shelling, despite his pleas.
Lamenting the continued civilian fatalities through indiscriminate bombing, he said: “It is difficult to identify civilians from Tigers at 20,000 feet in the air.”
He said that despite his letter to the president, “nothing is happening as the government says they have to liberate the area – but people still suffer”.
The internally displaced people as well as the local civilians have taken refuge along the Paranthan Mulaithivu road (A35) and are heavily concentrated between Dharmapuram and Puthukudiyiruppu.
Bishop Savundaranayagam said that the government has been sending food and medical aid to civilians via the Red Cross, but added that many hospitals have been displaced and medical aid is being provided in makeshift facilities.
The bishop has been highly critical of the armed conflict. He said: “A military solution can never bring about a lasting solution to the present problem.”
The government ended a six-year truce with rebels in 2006 and vowed to secure victory in the 26-year conflict that has killed at least 70,000 people.
By late last year, the Tamil Tigers’ bid for a separate homeland looked in jeopardy after the army drove them to the far north of the country.

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 45 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information, please contact the Sydney office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
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