HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Visiting Envoys Should Make Civilian Protection Top Priority

April 27, 2009

By finally admitting it has been using heavy weapons all along, the Sri Lanka government has shed light onto its

official deception as well as its brutal military tactics. The UN Security Council should stop burying its head in the sand on Sri Lanka and urgently create an international commission of inquiry to look at abuses by both sides.

Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch

(New York) - The Sri Lankan government's admission that it has been using heavy weapons in an area crowded with displaced civilians underscores the need for an international commission of inquiry into violations of the laws of war by government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Human Rights Watch said today.

The Sri Lankan Presidential Secretariat conceded today that it had been using heavy weapons in the recent fighting, despite earlier statements that it had ceased their use. The statement said: "Our security forces have been instructed to end the use of heavy caliber guns, combat aircraft and aerial weapons which could cause civilian casualties."

"By finally admitting it has been using heavy weapons all along, the Sri Lanka government has shed light onto its official deception as well as its brutal military tactics," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The UN Security Council should stop burying its head in the sand on Sri Lanka and urgently create an international commission of inquiry to look at abuses by both sides."

For months, the Sri Lankan government has denied that its operations against the LTTE were killing civilians and ignored appeals by the United Nations and many other members of the international community to stop attacks in the government-declared "no-fire zone," where it had encouraged civilians to take shelter. For example, on April 23, Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told the BBC: "We are going very slowly towards the south of the no-fire zone to rescue the remaining civilians. Our troops are not using heavy fire power, they are using only guns and personal weapons."

Numerous accounts by witnesses as well as photographs and satellite imagery have demonstrated the continuing use of heavy artillery and aerial bombardment in the fighting between government forces and the LTTE. According to the UN, an estimated 6,400 people have been killed and more than 13,000 wounded in the conflict area since January 2009.

The UN estimates that more than 50,000 civilians remain trapped. The LTTE reportedly continues to prevent the escape of many. The extreme vulnerability of these civilians is compounded by severe shortages of food, water, and medical supplies. In addition to its indiscriminate attacks on the "no-fire zone," the government's continued refusal to allow adequate humanitarian personnel and delivery of essential relief supplies has denied civilians critical assistance. Its ban on allowing impartial outside observers, including journalists and human rights monitors, into the area has obstructed another important aspect of civilian protection.

Human Rights Watch said that many of the internally displaced persons now entering government-controlled areas had not eaten for days. They continue to face shortages of food, water, shelter, and sanitation as they await government screening and registration before being transferred and detained in closed government detention camps, which the government calls "welfare centers."

Human Rights Watch urged the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, France, and Sweden, who are bound for Colombo on April 29, 2009, to make the government's accountability for the protection and welfare of displaced civilians their top priority.

"The visiting foreign ministers from the UK, France, and Sweden may be the last hope of the remaining trapped civilians," said Adams. "They should make it clear to Sri Lanka's leaders that they will be held accountable for attacks on civilians or denying them access to humanitarian aid."

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/04/27/sri-lanka-government-admission-shows-need-un-inquiry

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Sri Lanka eyewitness: More refugees are arriving – and there's not enough shelter

By Stein Lied

Tuesday, 28 April 2009

Ethnic Tamil children, many of whom are separated from their parents, wait in line to receive food at a camp in Putamattalan, Sri Lanka, earlier this month

The eight-year-old girl, when we found her, was totally folded in on herself, and unable to speak. She'd witnessed her father and sister die from shelling in Vanni, and then her mother was shot on the way back. The girl was left with just her brother at her side. But in the chaos of their arrival at the temporary camps along with tens of thousands of other civilians, the two had been separated.

A fifth of children in the camps where we're providing aid are either missing or separated from one of their parents. Those who have reached safety speak vividly of the terror of separation from their families, while others describe the horror of fleeing from the "no-fire" zone. Many youngsters are trying to cope with the trauma of what they have experienced entirely on their own.

There are more than 100,000 people in the government camps now – and still more are arriving. There's nowhere near enough shelter. As soon as we got out of the car yesterday, a huge crowd came towards us crying, shouting and telling us their horrific stories. One breastfeeding woman had lost her newborn in the panic. Many simply have no idea where their families are. Some told me their relatives had died along the way.

Families are arriving malnourished and dehydrated – most haven't received food for up to three days and probably hardly any water either. Some have been wearing the same clothes for weeks. We've handed out hygiene kits, and kits for mothers with small babies, sleeping mats, bed sheets and jerry cans but we're running short of clothes. We thought there were 300 families per block, but there are almost double that number. Apart from basic supplies we're trying to establish areas where professional counsellors can organise structured play, and give kids a chance to talk with other children their age. The first step is just to get them smiling again, and then drawing, which is a less painful way of relating their experiences than by talking about them. It will take years to help them come to terms with what's happened, but this is a start.

One of the biggest priorities now has to be to reunite lost or orphaned children with their remaining family members. The authorities say they've managed to bring together 1,000 families. But there's a daunting amount of work to do and it has to be done urgently as these children are vulnerable.

The writer is an aid worker with Save the Children in northern Sri Lanka. For information about their work go to www.savethechildren.org.uk/srilankacrisis

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/sri-lanka-eyewitness-more-refugees-are-arriving-ndash-and-theres-not-enough-shelter-1675196.html

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Sri Lanka war zone closed to UN

aljazeera.net / Tuesday, April 28, 2009 11:16 Mecca time, 08:16 GMT

Thousands of civilians are trapped inside a strip of land held by Tamil Tiger fighters [AFP] The United Nations' humanitarian affairs chief has failed in his attempt to bring a halt to fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger separatists in Sri Lanka. John Holmes was unable to get permission from Mahinda Rajapkase, the Sri Lankan president, to allow a UN aid mission into a pocket of rebel-held land that is surrounded by the Sri Lankan military. "We don't have agreement on this [failure to get a UN team into the conflict zone] ... I am disappointed about this," Holmes said during his visit to the country on Monday. The United Nations estimates that up to 50,000 non-combatants are still in the conflict zone, although the government maintains that the number is less than 20,000. The Sri Lankan military said on Monday that it had ordered its troops to end the use of heavy weaponry and aerial bombardment in their fight against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), commonly known as the Tamil Tigers. 'No change' Holmes met Rohitha Bogollagama, Sri Lanka's foreign minister, before visiting camps in northern Vavuniya where more than 113,000 civilians have sought refuge in camps that are overcrowded and still without enough supplies. Focus: Sri Lanka Q&A: Sri Lanka's civil war The history of the Tamil Tigers Timeline: Conflict in Sri Lanka 'High cost' of victory over Tigers Caught in the middle But David Chater, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital, said that the UN official had not managed to secure access to the combat zone for a small team from the world body. "Absolutely nothing has changed as a result of John Holmes' visit, apart from another ten million dollars in humanitarian aid being pledged," Chater reported. "[That money could provide] at least a bit of relief for those who got out of the combat zone, but no relief for those still inside." Aid organisations, journalists and other independent observers are banned from entering the conflict zone, making independent assessment of the continuing fighting impossible. Sweden's foreign minister said on Tuesday that he has been refused entry to Sri Lanka on a European mediating mission aimed at bringing about an immediate ceasefire between the Sri Lankan military and the LTTE. Carl Bildt was due to visit the country on Wednesday with his British and French counterparts, but he told the Associated Press that Sri Lankan authorities did not give him permission to enter the country. David Miliband, the British foreign minister, and Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, will be allowed into the country, Bildt said. 'Army halted' "We ask the international community to intervene in this problem and save our people... We [the LTTE] carry weapons to save our people and protect their rights" Thileevan, an LTTE spokesman inside the conflict zone The Sri Lankan government said on Monday that it would stop intensive fighting against the LTTE in an effort to ease the suffering of civilians, although the statement contradicted earlier assertions that it would continue its fight against the Tigers who had offered a ceasefire on Sunday. A statement from the president's office said on Monday: "Combat operations have reached their conclusion." Soldiers will "confine their attempts to rescue civilians who are held hostage and give foremost priority to saving civilians". The military has also ordered troops not to use "heavy-calibre guns, combat aircraft or aerial weapons, which could cause civilian casualties", the statement said. The Sri Lankan government had previously said that no heavy weapons were being used in populated areas and that the operation was merely a "rescue" exercise. But Chater said that hostilities had not necessarily ended. "The government is determined there should be no pause in the fighting ... [The government] says it knows how ruthless [the Tamil Tigers] are and have no intention of negotiating with them unless they lay down their arms and surrender." LTTE accusation A pro-Tamil Tiger website on Tuesday accused the military of continuing to pound areas of the conflict zone populated by civilian. Thileevan, an LTTE spokesman inside the conflict zone, also told Al Jazeera that the area had been shelled heavily. "We don't know how many people were killed because we could not get out of this area. But when I went to the hospital this morning I saw hundreds of severely wounded people," he said on Tuesday. Holmes' attempt to get access to the conflict zone was rebuffed by Colombo [AFP] "We ask the international community to intervene in this problem and save our people... We [the LTTE] carry weapons to save our people and protect their rights." A day earlier, the Tamilnet website quoted S Puleedevan, an LTTE spokesman, as saying the government's announcement on non-use of heavy weapons was an attempt "to deceive the international community, including the people of Tamil Nadu [a Tamil-majority Indian province]". The Sri Lankan military has denied the LTTE claims, but says it is aiming to capture more territory and that its aim is to wipe out the Tamil Tigers. Tamils in India have been pressuring the Indian government to intervene to bring about a ceasefire in Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan forces are continuing with "humanitarian operations aimed at rescuing" the remaining civilians trapped in the island's northeast, where the LTTE is defending a narrow strip of jungle, the military said on Monday. "We reduced the coastline they have to 6km from 8km last week," Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, a military spokesman, said. "Our operations are continuing, and yesterday we managed to rescue another 3,200 civilians," he said. About 110,000 civilians escaped from the LTTE-held combat zone last week after an ultimatum by the government for the Tamil Tigers to surrender. Sri Lanka's government has said it is on the verge of defeating the LTTE after 37 years of conflict, and has consistently brushed off international calls for a truce. On Sunday, the government also rejected an LTTE call for a unilateral ceasefire. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/04/20094286415401578.html ------------------------------------------------------------

Sri Lanka: More Nurses Desperately Needed for Patients to Survive

April 24, 2009

Paul McMaster is working along with another Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) surgeon and Ministry of Health staff at Vavuniya hospital in the Northern province of Sri Lanka to treat some of the tens of thousands of civilians streaming out of the Vanni, the conflict zone to the north.

Earlier this week, an estimated 60,000 civilians escaped the heavy fighting in the Vanni and many wounded continue to be brought in buses to Vavuniya hospital. On April 21, MSF reported treating 400 people in 36 hours, almost twice as many patients as were admitted the previous week. On April 24, Dr. McMaster gave an update on what he and his team were seeing.

Less new arrivals; reasons unclear

Over the last 24 hours we have seen for the first time fewer casualties coming into the hospital. We only saw 44 severely wounded patients coming into the hospital yesterday, although more have come in this morning. It might be that some of the other casualties are going elsewhere, to other hospitals. We’ve sent a team on an exploratory mission to try to find out exactly what’s happening.

We have done 71 major operations over the past 24 hours. A lot of the 71 operations have been catching up on the last few days – people who we just haven’t had time to treat. It has been bedlam in the hospital. But it hasn’t got worse in the last 24 hours. We are working with Sri Lankan colleagues who are fully committed to helping the injured. We should recognize the effort they have made.

Injuries are severe and hospital is overburdened

One of the patients I have seen is a little girl of about seven or eight who has a severe leg injury. Her elder sister is in the same bed with wounds on her arms and legs. Their other sister has burns to her face. Their mother has been killed and their father is in intensive care. With the level of aftercare that we can provide at the moment he has a 50/50 chance of making it, at best.

We are only seeing the acute casualties – there are many people who are ill – several of the injured people also have chicken pox. We are hearing reports that there have been outbreaks of chicken pox in the camps because peoples’ immune systems are so weak.

Things are continuing, but the level of activity has dropped over the last 24 hours. We’re trying to recover from the past few days. At the moment, the Sri Lankan team are in theatre and we are trying to sort out the wards. We have 320 patients in a ward with 45 beds. It’s so crowded that the nurses cannot physically walk around the ward.

More nurses direly needed for post-surgery care

We manage to get most patients into surgery – the problem is we desperately need more nurses to provide the level of aftercare they need if they’re going to survive.

We are losing people who have major injuries because we do not have enough nurses to give them the level of aftercare they need. The nurses we’ve got are doing an excellent job – they are working 18 to 20 hours a day and I hear that some extra nurses are being sent to the hospital; the Sri Lankan medical authorities have made a real effort to send extra staff to help out.

There are simply too many people to treat them all; we are not able to save some people because we need to provide more aftercare. There are simply not enough nurses.

I do not have the big picture. We are hearing rumors that more people are going to come but can’t verify this, of course. The patients are telling us they’ve seen many more injured people; we’re still preparing for many more people to come. The MSF head of mission and others have gone up to the Vanni crossing point to assess the situation.

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article.cfm?id=3562&cat=field-news&ref=home-center

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Listen to the April 22 interview with Dr. Paul McMaster:

Related

Sri Lanka: Severely Injured Patients Stream into Vavuniya Hospital

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UN report discloses Sri Lanka dead

Saturday, April 25, 2009 / 06:52 Mecca time, 03:52 GMT

Hundreds of civilians displaced by the civil war have been getting humanitarian aid [EPA] Nearly 6,500 civilians have been killed and 13,000 wounded in fighting in Sri Lanka over the past three months, according to a UN report. The release of the document on Friday comes two days after Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said in Brussels he was sending a team of humanitarian experts to the country as part of efforts to "try to do whatever we can to protect the civilian population". According to the UN figures, 6,432 civilians have been killed in the fighting since 20 January and another 13,946 wounded. Speaking in New York, Catherine Bragg, the UN assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said the organisation continued to receive reports that "heavy weaponry is being used ... and the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) is preventing people form leaving that area and using the civilians as human shields". Tamil Tigers 'encircled' The government has said that, since Monday, 104,862 civilians have escaped the conflict between the Sinhalese who are in power and the Tamil minority who say they are being marginalised. Focus: Sri Lanka Q&A: Sri Lanka's civil war The history of the Tamil Tigers Timeline: Conflict in Sri Lanka 'High cost' of victory over Tigers Caught in the middle Video: Civilians 'escape' rebels Video: Grim civilian toll after fighting David Chater, Al Jazeera's correspondent near Kilinochchi in the north, said: "The army are pushing to encircle the remaining Tamil Tigers ... moving along the beaches to separate them from the ocean. "We know that 103,000 Tamils have been processed through all the checkpoints and sent to IDP [Internally Displaced Person] camps." Civilian casualties have been rising in the conflict zone where the military has been trying to finish off the armed rebellion, according to Doctors Without Borders. People with untreated blast, mine and gunshot wounds are reported to be among more than 100,000 civilians pouring out of the war zone. India has joined the UN in dispatching teams to Sri Lanka to help deal with what the two have described as a "rapidly deteriorating situation". "So many lives have been sacrificed. There is no time to lose," Ban said. Stiff resistance "The purpose of this humanitarian team would be to, first of all, monitor the situation and support humanitarian assistance and try to do whatever we can to protect the civilian population," he said, urging the government to co-operate. The UN estimates 50,000 are still trapped in the war zone [Reuters] The army said LTTE fighters were ignoring calls to surrender and putting up stiff resistance despite being cornered into an area smaller than 12 sq km on the northeast coast. India, which has been blamed by Tamils for aiding the Sri Lankan government's efforts against the LTTE, has called for an "immediate cessation of all hostilities". Pranab Mukherjee, the Indian foreign minister, expressed "deep concern and anxiety" for "the conditions of Tamil civilians in the conflict zones". The country's 25-year civil war has flared in recent months with the Sri Lankan military pushing to crush the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels in their remaining territory in the north. The Sri Lankan army blames the LTTE for trapping about 15,000 to 20,000 civilians, and said their surrender was the only way they could be freed. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/04/200942481818915538.html

'No pause' in Sri Lanka fighting

Troops have driven the rebels into a tiny coastal area

The Sri Lankan army has said there will be no more breaks in fighting against the Tamil Tigers in the north of the country, as it closes in on the rebels.

Spokesman Brig Shavendra Silva said the only way civilians could leave the area was if the army rescued them, as the rebels would not let any more out.

Rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was still in the conflict zone, he added.

The UN has been calling on both sides to pause hostilities so aid can be sent in and people evacuated.

It is sending an aid team to the area, where it says 50,000 are trapped.

The BBC's Charles Haviland, who travelled through areas close to the frontline and saw refugees who had recently fled from the fighting, says many looked seriously ill and most very weak.

The government says 100,000 people have fled since Monday's military push. An estimated 60,000 people had already fled in recent months.

See a map of the region

A UN document being circulated around diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka estimates that nearly 6,500 civilians have died and 14,000 have been injured.

The BBC's Charles Haviland, in Puthukkudiyiruppu near the front line A jolting ride in armoured vehicles took us across the swathe of north-east Sri Lanka which until a couple of months ago was held by the rebels. Buildings are badly damaged and the land is devoid of people. They've all been taken to areas the government calls welfare villages. Then suddenly, in coconut groves, we saw a long line of people who've freshly fled from the conflict zone. Many looked seriously ill, and most very weak. Surrounded by soldiers, people told us briefly that they'd been hungry or thirsty, or were happy to be out, or that the Tamil Tigers had prevented them from leaving. We and they were then moved on.

Meanwhile senior Indian officials have met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo, following Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee's call to end the killing of civilians.

No details of the meeting have been released, but Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and National Security Adviser M K Narayanan were expected to stress the severity of the humanitarian crisis.

Brig Silva said intelligence reports indicated that Velupillai Prabhakaran and other rebel leaders were still in the conflict zone and appeared to be preparing to make a last stand.

He has not been seen for 18 months, and there was speculation that he was killed or fled the island.

The army spokesman added that the Tamil Tigers were dressing in civilian clothing to blend in, and firing into the zone using heavy weaponry so people would think the army was firing at them.

But our correspondent says there is no way of verifying these reports.

On Thursday, the representative of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Colombo, Amin Awad, called on the Sri Lankan government to allow pauses in the fighting so the necessary work could be completed.

"We are calling on the government to restrain itself and have the moral upper ground by allowing the humanitarian aid in, and we're asking the LTTE [Tamil Tigers] to open the gates of hell and allow these people out into safety," he said.

Hours earlier, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced the immediate despatch of the humanitarian team.

Thousands of people are caught with the Tamil Tigers in a 12 sq km (5 sq m) area in the north of the country as the military closes in.

The UN's humanitarian coordinator, Neil Buhne, said tens of thousands of people were living in camps in the northern town of Vavuniya.

news.bbc.co.uk / Friday, 24 April 2009 12:33 UK

UN report discloses Sri Lanka dead
aljazeera.net /Friday, April 24, 2009 13:57 Mecca time, 10:57 GMT
Nearly 6,500 civilians have been killed and 13,000 wounded in fighting in Sri Lanka over the past three months, accord to a UN report. The release of the document on Friday comes a day after Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, said in Brussels he was sending a team of humanitarian experts to the country as part of efforts to "try to do whatever we can to protect the civilian population". According to the UN figures, 6,432 civilians have been killed in the fighting since 20 January and another 13,946 wounded. Speaking in New York, Catherine Bragg, the UN assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said the organisation continued to receive reports that "heavy weaponry is being used ... and the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) is preventing people form leaving that area and using the civilians as human shields". Tamil Tigers 'encircled' The government has said that, since Monday, 104,862 civilians have escaped the conflict between the Sinhalese who are in power and the Tamil minority who say they are being marginalised. David Chater, Al Jazeera's correspondent near Kilinochchi in the north, said: "The army are pushing to encircle the remaining Tamil Tigers ... moving along the beaches to separate them from the ocean. "We know that 103,000 Tamils have been processed through all the checkpoints and sent to IDP [Internally Displaced Person] camps." Civilian casualties have been rising in the conflict zone where the military has been trying to finish off the armed rebellion, according to Doctors Without Borders. People with untreated blast, mine and gunshot wounds are reported to be among more than 100,000 civilians pouring out of the war zone. India has joined the UN in dispatching teams to Sri Lanka to help deal with what the two have described as a "rapidly deteriorating situation". "So many lives have been sacrificed. There is no time to lose," Ban said. Stiff resistance "The purpose of this humanitarian team would be to, first of all, monitor the situation and support humanitarian assistance and try to do whatever we can to protect the civilian population," he said, urging the government to co-operate. The army said LTTE fighters were ignoring calls to surrender and putting up stiff resistance despite being cornered into an area smaller than 12 sq km on the northeast coast. India, which has been blamed by Tamils for aiding the Sri Lankan government's efforts against the LTTE, has called for an "immediate cessation of all hostilities". Pranab Mukherjee, the Indian foreign minister, expressed "deep concern and anxiety" for "the conditions of Tamil civilians in the conflict zones". The country's 25-year civil war has flared in recent months with the Sri Lankan military pushing to crush the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels in their remaining territory in the north. The Sri Lankan army blames the LTTE for trapping about 15,000 to 20,000 civilians, and said their surrender was the only way they could be freed. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/04/200942481818915538.html

Aid groups say tens of thousands of civilians remain trapped in the war zone [AFP]

Sri Lanka warned of 'catastrophe'

aljazeera.net / Wednesday, April 22, 2009 11:10 Mecca time, 08:10 GMT

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said that there is a "catastrophic" humanitarian crisis in northern Sri Lanka's conflict zone, where tens of thousands of civilians are trapped.

The warning comes as government forces closed in on fighters from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are defying a government ultimatum to give up or face a "final assault", saying they will not surrender.

The Red Cross said on Tuesday that about 50,000 people were still stranded in the tiny strip of land in the island's northeast, and a final offensive "could lead to a dramatic increase in the number of civilian casualties".

"The situation is nothing short of catastrophic," Pierre Kraehenbuehl, the Red Cross operations director in Sri Lanka, said.

"Ongoing fighting has killed or wounded hundreds of civilians who have only minimal access to medical care.

"I cannot remember ... as much concentrated pain and exposure to violence with very, very minimal possibilities to reach anywhere that could be called safe."

Al Jazeera's correspondent David Chater, was at a government field hospital about 40km south of the war area, where evacuees were receiving some food and treatment. He said that Tamils leaving the zone told him that they had been shot at by the LTTE which was trying to ensure that they did not leave.

Earlier Chater, travelling with the Sri Lankan navy about 20km south of the conflict zone, saw thousands of civilians leaving the area.

"We've been passing long lines of refugees being towed by the Sri Lankan navy," he said.

"They looked in a terrible condition but very, very relieved to get out of there."

Thousands killed

The United Nations, which estimates that more than 4,500 civilians have been killed in the past three months, has joined calls for a negotiated truce to allow civilians to leave the rebel-held coastal strip.

A UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman expressed concern about the "dramatic situation" for civilians still in the war zone.

"There are innocent civilians, women and children, caught in the middle of the conflict ... so the high commissioner is saying there should be a pause in the hostilities and the LTTE should allow civilians to leave," Ron Redmond, the spokesman, said.

The LTTE vowed to continue fighting after a 24-hour government ultimatum expired at noon (06:30 GMT) on Tuesday.

Sri Lankan government officials said there was no fighting as troops pushed further into rebel territory this week as part of a "rescue operation".

Wasantha Karannagoda, the commander of the Sri Lankan navy, said they were ready for the rebels who he said "did not have much of a capability at the moment".

"They have lost most of their boats. They had to leave some behind and some were captured inland by the army about 2-3 kilometres from the coastal belt, but the majority were destroyed by us at sea," he said.

The US government on Tuesday released satellite images showing about 25,000 tents housing civilians squeezed into the last LTTE-controlled sliver of land of about 21 sq km in the northeast of the island.

Dr Ghana Gunalan, director of health services, at Trincomalee on the northeast coast told Al Jazeera: "Most of these people have been transported under ICRC flags to Trincomalee. Most people have blast injuries, including to their limbs and abdomens.

"[These injuries] must have been cuased by flying objects that have exploded in front of them."

More than 77,000 civilians have escaped from the area since Monday, according to the Sri Lankan government.

The UN said before Monday's mass exodus that about 150,000 people remained in the war zone.

US appeal

Michael Owen, a senior US diplomat speaking in Washington, urged Sri Lanka to allow the international community to monitor what is happening and assure that it will help trapped civilians.

"The 26-year-old conflict is at a decisive point and we see the potential for major developments within the next 48 hours," he told reporters, while urging restraint on all sides. Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, a Sri Lankan military spokesman, denied that 1,000 civilians had died, saying 17 civilians were killed on Monday by rebel shelling and by three suicide bombers. "Our troops are rescuing the trapped civilians. It's the LTTE which is preventing civilians from fleeing," he said. The claim is impossible to independently verify because journalists are barred by the government from the war zone. Nimmi Gowrinathan, the Programme Director for New York-based Operation USA, said that within the last three days about 68,000 people have arrived at their medical camp. She said another 35,000 people were waiting to come in while 600 injured people were waiting to be transported. 'Desperate condition' Chater said that the refugees leaving the conflict zone looked to be "in a desperate condition". "The assault craft that I am on stopped to try and give some water and biscuits and basic food to the refugees," he said. "They had children, they were short of water, they were clearly desperately tired. "But it was at least for them a breath of freedom getting out, but it is a long way along the sea to any safety." Gowrinathan said there had been a number of reports that the last remaining hospital in the conflict zone was hit by heavy artillery two weeks ago and in the last 24 hours an orphanage was hit, killing children. "The government is absolutely trying to cover-up ... there is an information blackout. Some doctors on the government payroll who had stayed in the conflict have been warned not to give out information on the casualties," she said.

The silent horror of the war in Sri Lanka

(Times of India30 Mar 2009, 0027 hrs IST, Arundhati Roy

The horror that is unfolding in Sri Lanka becomes possible because of the silence that surrounds it. There is almost no reporting in the mainstream Indian media — or indeed in the international press — about what is happening there. Why this should be so is a matter of serious concern.

From the little information that is filtering through it looks as though the Sri Lankan government is using the propaganda of the ‘war on terror’ as a fig leaf to dismantle any semblance of democracy in the country, and commit unspeakable crimes against the Tamil people. Working on the principle that every Tamil is a terrorist unless he or she can prove otherwise, civilian areas, hospitals and shelters are being bombed and turned into a war zone. Reliable estimates put the number of civilians trapped at over 200,000. The Sri Lankan Army is advancing, armed with tanks and aircraft.

Meanwhile, there are official reports that several ‘‘welfare villages’’ have been established to house displaced
Tamils in Vavuniya and Mannar districts. According to a report in The Daily Telegraph (Feb 14, 2009), these villages ‘‘will be compulsory holding centres for all civilians fleeing the fighting’’. Is this a euphemism for concentration camps? The former foreign minister of Sri Lanka, Mangala Samaraveera, told The Daily Telegraph:
‘‘A few months ago the government started registering all Tamils in Colombo on the grounds that they could be a security threat, but this could be exploited for other purposes like the Nazis in the 1930s. They’re basically going to label the whole civilian Tamil population as potential terrorists.’’

Given its stated objective of ‘‘wiping out’’ the LTTE, this malevolent collapse of civilians and ‘‘terrorists’’ does seem to signal that the government of Sri Lanka is on the verge of committing what could end up being genocide. According to a UN estimate several thousand people have already been killed. Thousands more are critically wounded. The few eyewitness reports that have come out are descriptions of a nightmare from hell. What we are witnessing, or should we say, what is happening in Sri Lanka and is being so effectively hidden from public scrutiny, is a brazen, openly racist war. The impunity with which the Sri Lankan government is being able to commit these crimes actually unveils the deeply ingrained racist prejudice, which is precisely what led to the marginalization and alienation of the Tamils of Sri Lanka in the first place. That racism has a long history, of social ostracisation, economic blockades, pogroms and torture. The brutal nature of the decades-long civil war, which started as a peaceful, non-violent protest, has its roots in this.

Why the silence? In another interview Mangala Samaraveera says, ‘‘A free media is virtually non-existent in Sri Lanka today.’’

Samaraveera goes on to talk about death squads and ‘white van abductions’, which have made society ‘‘freeze with fear’’. Voices of dissent, including those of several journalists, have been abducted and assassinated. The International Federation of Journalists accuses the government of Sri Lanka of using a combination of anti-terrorism laws, disappearances and assassinations to silence journalists.

There are disturbing but unconfirmed reports that the Indian government is lending material and logistical support to the Sri Lankan government in these crimes against humanity. If this is true, it is outrageous. What of the governments of other countries? Pakistan? China? What are they doing to help, or harm the situation?

In Tamil Nadu the war in Sri Lanka has fuelled passions that have led to more than 10 people immolating themselves. The public anger and anguish, much of it genuine, some of it obviously cynical political manipulation, has become an election issue.

It is extraordinary that this concern has not travelled to the rest of India. Why is there silence here? There are no ‘white van abductions’ — at least not on this issue. Given the scale of what is happening in Sri Lanka, the silence is inexcusable. More so because of the Indian government’s long history of irresponsible dabbling in the conflict, first taking one side and then the other. Several of us including myself, who should have spoken out much earlier, have not done so, simply because of a lack of information about the war. So while the killing continues, while tens of thousands of people are being barricaded into concentration camps, while more than 200,000 face starvation, and a genocide waits to happen, there is dead silence from this great country.
It’s a colossal humanitarian tragedy. The world must step in. Now. Before it’s too late.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/The-silent-horror-of-the-war-in-Sri-Lanka/articleshow/4331986.cms