Colombo (AsiaNews) – The Bishop of Mannar has called for forgiveness in the wake of an attack on the parish church of Pesalai, northern Sri Lanka.  Bishop Rayappu Joseph has also written to the Apostolic Nuncio to brief him about the situation, and urged the government and rebels to end ongoing violence.

The bishop blames the Sri Lankan Navy (SLN) for the attack on the church of Our Lady of Victory, in which a woman was killed, and for the massacre of five fishermen on the seashore on 17 June.

The civilians were killed on the early morning, when the SLN went on a rampage immediately after a naval battle with the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) off the shores of Pesalai, Mannar district. The bishop said the SLN executed five fishermen who had just returned to the seashore by shooting them point-blank. Then, "firing blindly", they headed for the church, where around 3,000 villagers had sought refuge from earlier attacks by the police. The troops surrounded the church, fired inside and threw in grenades, killing a 75-year-old woman and wounding scores of people. The government later blamed the LTTE, which denied responsibility for the attack. The victims were of different faiths: three Catholics, two Hindus and a Muslim.

At the funeral mass of the six victims held on 18 June, Bishop Joseph called the faithful to forgiveness. In a letter to Archbishop Mario Zenari, Apostolic Nuncio in Sri Lanka, Bishop Joseph related Saturday's events and said: "We buried the six civilians murdered by the Navy… and I spoke of Jesus Christ cruelly crucified and his eternal words, 'Father forgive them for they do not know what thy do'. It is this power of forgiveness, I said, that made Him rise again and reminded the people of this hope that enlightens us even at this hour of darkness."

Bishop Joseph said the funeral was followed by a day of penance and prayer on Monday 19 June, and a ceremony was held in the parish church to purify it after the "shedding of innocent blood of those taking refuge in the sanctuary of their religion".

Saturday's killings have left the people of Pesalai more "mortally afraid" than ever of SLN troops, "almost all of whom are prejudiced heavily against the Tamil people", continued the bishop in his letter. He said civilians wanted and needed protection from the Sri Lankan security forces. "Their immediate expectation is that a neutral force should be brought in to take care of the security of the innocent people."

The bishop organised a meeting between the Pesalai villagers and the local SLN commander on Saturday evening. The question of the civilians, he said, was "if even a sacred place like a church is unsafe, where else will innocent civilians find safety?" The villagers said they had had nothing to do with the naval battle with the LTTE. "Why, they asked, this cruel brutality against innocent people taking refuge in a church?"

Although the SLN commander promised to ensure security, the people know from bitter experience that his words are practically meaningless. The bishop continued: "The Sri Lankan security forces unrealistically expect ordinary civilians to give them information about the LTTE. They do not see that civilians have nothing to do with LTTE plans and activities and that their only concern is sustaining their families. Unless and until this unfounded prejudice against Tamil civilians is removed from the forces, they will never be in a position to offer any security to the people."

The bishop urged the government and the LTTE immediately to halt all killings and murders through the intervention of the Norwegian peace facilitators and to adhere to the ceasefire. But although the LTTE yesterday told Norway they remain committed to the peace process – as the government did earlier – events on the ground tell a different story as more and more innocent people are killed every day.