Ilankai Tamil Sangam, USA wishes to register its protest, in the strongest possible terms, at the bombing of the Catholic shrine in Madhu in the Tamil homelands in the island of Sri Lanka, by the Sri Lankan government’s Armed Forces, on the 20^th November 1999.

This church has been a sanctuary for decades for the Tamil refugees fleeing the prolonged war being prosecuted by the Sri Lanka government against the Tamil people of the island. Thousands of Tamil refugees have, over this period, found refuge at this Catholic Church.

The sangam has learned that, in the most recent battle between the Sri Lankan army and the LTTE this month (November 99), the latter had taken all precautions to avoid the precincts of this church, and that the Sri Lanka army had taken advantage of this for its own strategic military purposes.

When it failed, we understand, the Sri Lankan army purposefully shelled the church in a revenge attack, killing and wounding over one hundred people among the 3,000 civilians who had recently taken refuge at this Catholic Church.

This is not the first time that the Sri Lanka government forces have attacked fleeing Tamil civilians finding refuge in shelters nominated by the Sri Lankan government and its armed forces.

Under the stewardship of the present President of Sri Lanka, Mrs. Chandrika Kumaratunge (i.e. since 1995), there have been numerous such attacks on Tamil civilians at designated refugee centers.

The conclusion that the Sri Lanka government and its armed forces, dominated by Sinhala Buddhists in the island, targets the ethnic Tamil civilians in its attempt to subjugate them is inescapable.