Tamil Justice

AP – Sri Lankan doctors say they exaggerated war deaths

A group of Sri Lankan doctors who have been in police custody for nearly two months were brought before the media Wednesday to recant their reports of mass civilian casualties during the final days of the civil war.

The men, who looked well-fed but nervous, denied they were withdrawing their statements under pressure from the government, even as they expressed hopes they might now be released. A rights group said there were “significant grounds to question whether these statements were voluntary.”

Their new testimony – with drastically reduced death tolls and casualty figures during shelling of civilian areas – contradicted reports from independent aid workers with the United Nations and the Red Cross who witnessed some of the violence.

Guardian – Sri Lankan doctors paraded to recant over ‘false’ casualty figures

Five Sri Lankan government doctors who were arrested in May for giving casualty figures to journalists in the last months of the civil war recanted today, claiming they had been under Tamil Tiger pressure to exaggerate the civilian death toll.

The doctors were presented to the press at the defence ministry’s media centre while still in custody. Human rights activists said last night they believed the doctors were being coerced by the Sri Lankan authorities, who had been embarrassed about the interviews they had given about civilian casualties from the war zone.

The doctors denied they were under pressure to recant and insisted that fewer than 1,000 civilians had been killed between January and 18 May, when a last stand by the Tigers in the north-east of the island was vanquished by the army.

Sam Zarifi, Asia-Pacific director of Amnesty International, said the doctors’ appearance had been expected and predicted. “Given the track record of the Sri Lankan government, there are very significant grounds to question whether these statements were voluntary and they raise serious concerns whether the doctors were subjected to ill-treatment during weeks of detention.”

Tamilnet – Vanni doctors forced to give false statement

5 Tamil doctors being held by the Sri Lankan authorities say they expect to be released, after being paraded to local and international media on Wednesday when they were made to claim that they had exaggerated civilian casualty figures in the final phases of the war at the request of the LTTE. Meanwhile, health workers who have escaped Vanni have slammed the international community for allowing the detainment of the doctors and questioned the validity of their statements in light of the ‘precarious position’ they face. 

The doctors, whose arrest in May by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) caused uproar throughout the Tamil Diaspora, said they had provided information to the media on the ‘instructions of the LTTE’, including ‘exaggerated figures about civilian casualties’. 

Health workers in Colombo and abroad have criticised the International Community for not condemning the immoral detainment of the doctors, and say the statement may have been the only option available to avoid further detention. 

Beyond Borders – “The Best cup of Nestomalt I’ve had in my life!!!”

Let alone Nestomalt, it was the best cup of anything I’ve ever drunk in my life. Honestly speaking, it was the first cup of Nestomalt I’ve ever drunk, cos’ I hate the stuff usually. Enough about me and Nestomalt, let me tell you why it was the best cup I’ve ever drunk!

I’m going to be starting with the end this time…it was approximately 7 pm and two of us were just finishing off our last distribution of some tea, sugar and “Nestomalt,” to the last ward. Once we were done, we decided to sit down and have a little chat with some of the patients and their families. We barely had any time to have a chat with anyone this time, because distribution was an absolute “logistical nightmare!” Anyway, as a direct result of a part Sinhala, part Tamil, part English and part sign language chat I had with one of the families, they discovered that we hadn’t had lunch as yet. And to make matters worse, I told them that I was “setthu poochi” (dead)! After having a good laugh possibly at my heavily accented Tamil, and also what I said, I guess, I moved to another group of patients, and as far as I was concerned, that was the end of that. That was of course until, around 10 minutes later, I get a little tap on my shoulder and a little girl hands me a little stainless steel tumbler full of piping hot Nestomalt!

…..

And then last but hardly least, there was precious little 2 week year old Arjun who had been born at the hospital. Cradled in his dad’s arms, he just lay there with his eyes peacefully shut, seemingly without a care in the world. Looking down on this tiny little miracle, all I could wish for with all my heart, was that he gets to grow up in a world where war, hatred, pain and suffering are only heard of in story books.

A friend of mine often questions my abundance of hope…“Arjun” is why I hope…

– Marisa de Silva.

Click here to read the blog post

BBC – Tamil war zone hospital hit again

Associated Press – Doctor says 50 killed in Sri Lanka hospital attack

Guardian – At least 50 die in second day of shelling at Sri Lankan hospital

Press TV – 50 civilian killed in Sri Lanka hospital raid

AlJazeera – Sri Lanka war hospital ‘hit again’

Huffington Post – West appaled at Bloodbath but action is scarse

After the largest reported attack on civilians in Sri Lanka over the weekend, the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Austria condemned the “bloodbath” and appealed for the United Nations Security Council to put the conflict on its agenda.

Meanwhile, four non-governmental groups (Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the International Crisis Group, and the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect) wrote to Japan’s Prime Minister Taro Aso, whose country is the largest donor, to intervene and the United States and Britain questioned whether the International Monetary Fund should give Sri Lanka a loan.

Time – Sri Lankans Caught in Hospital Crossfire

Bloomberg – Sri Lanka Hospital Shelling Kills 49 in War Zone, Doctor Says

Telegraph – Sri Lanka hospital attack kills dozens

Aljazeera – Sri Lanka ’shells rebel hospital’

Sky News – Patients Killed In Sri Lanka Hospital Attack

Zee News – Send US forces to Lanka to save innocent lives: Tamils to US

Washington, May 12: Accusing Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse of abdicating his responsibility to save civilians in restive north, Tamil Americans here have asked US President Barack Obama to send his forces to the strife-torn nation to save the lives of innocent people.

“This is pure and simple genocide. We are asking Obama administration to intervene to save the Tamils of Sri Lanka by sending its army there. The Rajapaksa Government has abdicated its responsibility to protect its Tamil citizens,” alleged Elias Jeyarajah, leader of the protesting Tamil Americans.

** Reports from within the conflict zone **
1200 bodies counted, hundreds seriously injured, aerial bombing continues

Read full report from the ground here.

AlJazeera – ‘Hundreds dead’ in Sri Lanka attack

The Sri Lankan military and Tamil Tiger rebels have blamed each other for an artillery attack in the country’s northeastern conflict zone that reportedly killed more than 370 civilians.

Dr V. Shanmugarajah, a government physician working in a makeshift hospital in the conflict zone, said he had counted the bodies of 378 civilians after an all-night assault that lasted until the early hours of Sunday.

ABC – More civilian deaths in Sri Lanka – Radio National Breakfast

The civil war in Sri Lanka has claimed more innocent lives. An estimated 378 civilians were killed and over 1,000 injured in heavy shelling in the country’s north. The attacks took place inside the designated civilian safety zone in the past 24 hours. Health officials working in the conflict zone have told the BBC they think the shells came from territory held by the Sri Lankan army. But the Sri Lankan military blames the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Independent : Day of slaughter in Sri Lanka blamed on government guns

The bitter endgame of Sri Lanka’s civil war may have provided its bloodiest day yet after 378 civilians trapped inside the conflict zone were reportedly killed by a barrage of government artillery. A further 1,100 civilians were said to have been wounded.

New York Times : Doctor Reports 378 Dead in Sri Lanka

A government doctor in Sri Lanka’s war zone said Sunday that 378 civilians were killed and more than 1,100 wounded in the past day during intensive shelling of the tiny piece of land still controlled by Tamil rebels.

The Sri Lankan military and the Tamil Tiger rebels traded accusations over who was responsible for the shelling, which the government doctor, V. Shanmugarajah, said was the worst carnage he had witnessed in the Sri Lankan military’s intensifying campaign to wipe out the rebels.

ABC : Sri Lankan shelling kills 378

Health officials working near the front line in Sri Lanka say heavy shelling in the newly-designated civilian safety zone has killed hundreds of civilians in the past 24 hours.

CNN – Sri Lanka denies claims civilians hit by shelling

Sri Lankan officials on Sunday disavowed rebel claims that government troops had indiscriminately shelled a no-fire zone, killing many civilians Saturday night and Sunday morning.

AFP : LTTE says Lankan forces killed 2000 civilians; Govt denies

Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels on Sunday accused the government of killing more than 2,000 civilians in 24 hours of artillery attacks, but the military denied the allegations.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said in a statement posted on the Tamilnet website that the army had unleashed a devastating offensive on the small coastal patch of land that the rebels still control.

PTI – LTTE says Lankan forces killed 2,000 civilians; Govt denies

The LTTE today accused Sri Lankan forces of killing over 2,000 civilians in shelling during the last 24 hours in the “safe zone” in the embattled north, a charge refuted as “propaganda” by the government.

The pro-Tigers website ‘Tamilnet’ quoted S Pathmanathan, head of the LTTE’s international relations, as alleging that Sri Lankan security forces were shelling on the civilians in the safe zones.

NPR - Hundreds Dead, Injured In Sri Lanka Fighting

Fighting between Tamil Tiger rebels and government forces has left about 380 civilians dead in northern Sri Lanka, and hundreds more injured. It’s a continuation of a decades-long civil war, that has left as many as 100,000 ethnic Tamils confined to an area the size of Central Park and surrounded by government forces.

CBC – Rising death toll reported in Sri Lanka after artillery barrage

The civilian death toll from an overnight artillery barrage in northern Sri Lanka has risen to 378, a health official said Sunday.

V. Shanmugarajah, a physician working in the war zone, reported the number as bodies were brought to the makeshift hospital that he runs. He said 1,122 people have been wounded.

HRW - Sri Lanka: Repeated Shelling of Hospitals Evidence of War Crimes

Video footage:

BBC - Hospital ‘hit by Sri Lankan army’

The Sri Lankan army has killed 91 people at a makeshift hospital inside a civilian safe zone in the last two days, two doctors have told the BBC.

Channel4 – ‘Sri Lankan army hits hospital’

Doctors say Sri Lankan army shells a hospital in the safe zone killing scores of civilian patients. Nick Paton Walsh reports.

The Guardian – Sri Lanka – at least 64 dead as ‘army shells’ hospital

Artillery shells hit a makeshift hospital in Sri Lanka’s northern war zone yesterday, killing at least 64 civilians, according to a government doctor and a website linked to the Tamil Tiger separatists, amid growing international pressure to safeguard thousands of civilians trapped in the area.

AAP – Doctor : 64 Die in Shelling of Sri Lanka hospital

MSF treating hundreds of wounded arriving from Sri Lankan war zone
According to international humanitarian law, when a government does not have the ability to provide basic needs to its citizens, it is obliged to allow international aid agencies to provide this care. The report by Médecins Sans Frontières shows that the Sri Lankan government is breaching this law.

There are over 1200 patients and the bed capacity is just over 400. “It’s chaotic” says Karen Stewart “the beds have been pushed together so it’s like one massive bed. Instead of having one person per bed you have two, it’s just like one huge bed across the ward. Then there’s a whole other layer on the ground, we have people under every bed, so that’s double capacity. You also have a lot of people who are outside in the walkways lying on mats.”

People arriving from the war zone are put into temporary government run camps in Vavuniya which are fast reaching maximum capacity. Families are cramped together, in some cases an entire family has to live in the space of a sofa. There is no freedom of movement in between the camps and only a minority have been able to find out any information about their loved ones who might be in other camps. “This” says Karen “is one of the biggest causes of mental health distress. They arrive, wounded, lost and skinny and then they are put in a camp where they can’t leave and they can’t call their family. They have no communication, they have nothing. There can be a husband and wife in two separate camps and they would never know.”

Herald Sun : Sri Lanka army kills 129 civilians, say rebels

CBC News : Sri Lankan military denies shelling safe zone

BBC : ‘Civilians die’ in Sri Lanka zone

Guardian : At least 128 reported dead in Sri Lanka’s ‘no-fire zone’