Navaly Church Bombing 25th Year Remembrance 

By Ruwan Laknath Jayakody –JULY 11, 2020

Ruwan Jayakody

An event of remembrance was held on 9 July at the Navaly Church in Jaffna as it is 25 years since the massacre where bombs were dropped over the Navaly area, killing hundreds and injuring many more including at the Church.  

According to an account by human rights activist Ruki Fernando, the bombings took place on 9 July 1995 at around 4.30-5 p.m. when a Pucara airplane dropped eight to 10 bombs over Navaly. ‘Initially, the Catholic Bishop of Jaffna, Thomas Savundranayagam and the International Committee of the Red Cross were quoted by the media as having said that 65 people had been killed. The number later rose to 117’. However, numbers mentioned to Fernando by villagers varied from 147 to 165 and 217. According to Fernando, some said that up to 300 could have been killed.

Fernando, in an article titled ‘Navaly Church Bombing – 25 Years On’ noted that at the time of the incident, the St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Navaly, was filled with displaced Tamils and members of the Church youth club.

‘Those killed included minors (a four-year-old, three young boys including one whose body was never found, and two girls including an 18-year-old), elders (two 68-year-olds), a Grama Niladhari who was cooking for the displaced and the youth volunteers, 13 members of one family, and a woman. About 45 of those killed are believed to have been from Navaly but most were the displaced who had come seeking refuge,’ he noted. The bombing also caused severe damage to the Church building (including the roof), the Hindu temple and about 30 houses (in three houses only rubble remained while another house had visible holes in the walls, and another had an iron gate that had got blown away). 

He further noted that all the people he had met in Navaly had categorically claimed that the alleged perpetrator of the bombing had been the Air Force. This, he noted, was reinforced by the issuance of death certificates which stated the cause of death as ‘death due to injuries caused by aerial bombardment’, as back in 1995, there was no other armed group that had planes that could carry out aerial bombing.

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