AI INDEX: ASA 37/01/98
26 JANUARY 1998
In a message to representatives of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) abroad, Amnesty International today condemned the killing of 10
civilians in yesterday's attack on the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy.
"The deliberate killings of civilians by armed opposition groups are
human rights abuses which cannot be tolerated under any circumstances,"
Amnesty International said today.
Three members of the LTTE drove a truck loaded with explosives through
roadblocks and detonated it in front of the temple just after 6am on
Sunday. The victims are reportedly all pilgrims who were on their way to
worship at the temple, containing a relic of a tooth of Buddha. Among them
are five members of one family from Embilipitiya, Ratnapura district,
including a two-year-old and a seven-year-old child.
Amnesty International is concerned that the attack flouts the
principle of distinction set out in international humanitarian standards
which govern the conduct of hostilities. According to this principle, armed
forces of all sides to a conflict must at all times distinguish between
civilian and military targets and must not target civilians.
The organization reiterated its call to the LTTE to ensure that its
forces abide by basic principles of international humanitarian law, in
particular, common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions and Additional
Protocol II.
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