November 13, 1993 will be 31 years since bombs were dropped by the Air Force over St. James Catholic Church in Gurunagar, Jaffna. Nine civilians were killed, several others injured and church and buildings nearby suffered severe damage. There is very little news and discussion about this in mainstream national media or even in the Catholic church.
This article is based on my stays at the church several times over the last years and interactions with the priest in charge, survivors, victims’ families and parish and diocesan archives made available to me.
St. James is one of the oldest and largest churches in Jaffna and would have been easily identifiable as a church from above. On the day of the bombing mass was celebrated at a nearby smaller church and not at St. James otherwise many more would have been killed and injured. Some of those in the church were those who had come to pray and others had come there out of fear of bombings by Air Force planes hovering in the Jaffna skies that morning, thinking the church would provide them a safe space.
A letter from the parish priest and the parish secretary noted that there were no militants’ camps anywhere near the vicinity. The letter also said that the government had repeatedly asked people to take refuge in churches and temples and then its armed forces proceed to bomb and kill people inside these buildings.
One eyewitness recalled being in the parish priest’s residence at the time of the incident. He heard and saw a plane fly overhead a few times, left the residence and sought shelter near the water tank and was injured in the leg. The church cook rushed to the church seeking refuge from bombing and was among those killed. The Sunday school teacher was also killed. One lady’s body was blown to pieces and all that was seen and collected was flesh. At least one child was killed. A letter signed by the parish priest and the secretary of the Parish Committee said that two people were “roasted alive” and others were “crushed by the debris”. One lady was identified by her jewelry and a handkerchief. Limbs and flesh were strewn all over and these remains and those who perished under the debris were buried in one coffin. One survivor spoke about the trauma, saying he had dreams about the bombing for many days and had to seek counseling. The metal tabernacle and sacred hosts were also scattered about. The roof, beams and walls of the church collapsed. The priest’s residence, the church assembly hall and nearby buildings were also damaged. The bombs’ force was such that a big, heavy door hinge was found on top of a tree.
Before and after the church bombing
A series of bombing had been reported in the days before and after the church bombing including the Nanthavil Amman Hindu Temple at Kokuvil, the Vairavar Hindu Temple at Varany and the Jaffna District Secretariat. Bombs were also dropped within 50 meters of the Jaffna General Hospital entrance, situated within the hospital high security zone and on hospitals in Killinochchi and Mulliawalai in Mullaitivu District.
A silent protest march was held by local people on December 3 starting from the church to the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and District Secretariat. Some protesters covered their mouths with black cloths and carried banners. Areas nearby the church was again subjected to aerial bombing on the evening of the day the protest was held, leading to deaths of at least eight civilians, injuries to many others and damage to shops. One church leader said that a shell had fallen in his house on the evening of December 3 after the protest.
Gnanartha Pradeepaya and Messenger, the Sinhalese and English weekly papers published by the Catholic Archdiocese of Colombo, carried news about the bombing on December 5. Both papers reported that the Catholic Bishop of Jaffna had written to President D. B. Wijetunga, saying the government must accept full responsibility of this bombing and that the Secretary of the Ministry of Defense had said this was an unfortunate missing of a target. I could not find any reports of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Sri Lanka taking up this matter with the government or commenting on it.
The church community came together to rebuild the church, forming the St. James Church Reconstruction Board. The war and tension in Jaffna and the embargo imposed by the government that included construction materials made rebuilding the church difficult. Permission of the Government Agent had to be sought even to bring sand. There was multiple correspondence between church leaders to the president, the Ministry of Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Social Welfare, the Resettlement and Rehabilitation Authority of the North and the Government Agent of Jaffna from 1993 until at least 2002. By February 14, 2000 repairs to the main wing of the church had been done including erection of poles, beams and repairs to the roof and walls through contributions of parish people and benefactors amounting to Rs.3,286,240. Parishioners had also contributed cement, sand and other building materials. According to church communications, the Jaffna Engineers Department estimated that Rs.9,078,000 was needed to repair the church on February 6, 1994, but by January 12, 2002 only Rs.2,350,000 had been provided by the state including the military. The church repairs have been completed now. According to elderly parishioners, the church retains the same size and design.
Memorials and new prospects for justice after 31 years
In a plaque listing Landmarks of Gurunagar Parish from its origins in 1624 to 2013, the “aerial attack on the church – 9 victims” in 1993 is noted. The plaque also notes the 1986 massacre of 31 Gurunagar fishermen at sea (media reports and local people accusing the Navy) and the 1995 exodus from Jaffna. A memorial is erected at the place one of the bombs had fallen at the church with words “Honour for the Dead, Warning to the Living, Temple for Justice”. A quote from the Bible “They shall raise up the former devastations….for I the Lord love justice” is also etched on the roof above the memorial. The annual memorial is held hereevery year on November 13.
To my knowledge, this was first major attack on a church during the war, which was followed by several other such attacks on churches such as the Navaly and the Allaipiddy churches in the Jaffna District and the Madhu and the Pesalai churches in Mannar District.
The death certificates issued indicates the cause of death as “aerial bombing”. The children of one mother who was killed had received Rs.10,000 each but not much information was available about compensation to those dead and injured. It should not be too difficult to trace who was in the Air Force flight that dropped the two bombs on the church and who gave orders but it seems clear there has been no investigations, no prosecutions and no convictions despite the ample evidence and acceptance that the Air Force was responsible for the carnage.
Prospects for justice now
The context of this and other attacks on churches in North is different to context of attacks on churches on Easter Sunday of 2019. The Air Force and Navy are directly implicated in carrying out attacks on the Gurunagar church, the Navaly church and the Pesalai churchs. The Easter Sunday attacks were carried out by private individuals but information and doubts have surfaced about involvement of state officials. The Supreme Court sanctioned the former president, Secretary Ministry of Defense, Inspector General of Policea and the chief of National Intelligence for Easter Sunday attacks.
The new president has made strong commitments to hold accountable those responsible for Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels and the police made recent public announcements about new investigations and indicating imminent arrests. The president’s party issued a special document with commitment for justice for Easter Sunday attacks in April this year and his election manifesto featured specific (although inadequate) commitments to ensure justice for Easter Sunday. The president visited one of the churches bombed on Easter Sunday attack in 2019 in the first few days after his election, listened to survivors and victim’s families and engaged in dialogue with them.
Not surprisingly, there were no such commitments or visits in relation to Gurunagar church bombing and attacks on other churches and killings of Tamil civilians in them. And there have been no visits to these churches to listen to survivors, victim’s families or speaking with them. The president received few votes in Jaffna and Northern Province and if he is serious about being a president for all and reaching out to those who didn’t vote for him, he could also give some attention to ensuring justice for the churches bombed on North and those killed and injured. I hope the new president and new government will take some initiatives towards this and I also hope Sinhalese Catholics, many of who would have voted for the new president and have been demanding justice for Easter Sunday attacks, will also demand justice for bombing of Gurunagar church and other churches in the North.
It is very late but still not too late for meaningful acknowledgement, apology, compensation and holding those reasonable legally accountable.