Navali Massacre

It has been 12 years since 13 babies died in thier mother's arms with 52 people.

Navali Massacre: St.Peters Church in Navaly bombed with refugees inside

Having dropped leaflets asking the people to move to places of worship the Sri Lanka air force there after attacked the places of worship where Tamil civilians had sought refuge.

St.Peters Church and St.Peters School in Navaly at a great distance away from the line of battle and where hundreds had sought shelter was deliberately bombed on 9 July 1995. On the day after the attack, 56 bodies were retrieved from the debris, many of whom were women and children. The death toll in this incident later increased to 120. 13 babies died in their mother's arms. Rescue workers reported torn limbs and pieces of human flesh strewn over the area.

"Thirteen babies were among the 65 dead found under the rubble of a Catholic church bombed by the Sri Lankan air force, an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) official said on Tuesday. ICRC field coordinator Dominique Henry said at least one bomb hit St Peter's Church at Navali, north of Jaffna town, on Sunday, the day the armed forces launched their ``Operation Leap Forward'' against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The military, which said it was not aware of any church being bombed, had dropped leaflets warning civilians in the rebel-held peninsula to seek refuge in temples and churches to minimise the chance of death or injury in air strikes… `This is really a violation of humanitarian law if a civilian area has been deliberately targeted,'' Henry said, adding that he had no information on whether the attack was deliberate or an accident. (Reuter 11 July 1995)

http://www.tamilnation.org/indictment/genocide95/gen95012.htm