Sri Lanka Criticizes Red Cross Report on Humanitarian Crisis: Bloomberg.com

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aim4Vf7uVOgs&refer=asia

 

Sri Lanka Criticizes Red Cross Report on Humanitarian Crisis

By Paul Tighe

 

Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka's government criticized as inaccurate a report by the International Committee of the Red Cross on a humanitarian crisis in the north, where the army is trying to defeat the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

 

The statement by the ICRC "fails to note the current ground realities," the Defense Ministry said on its Web site. It appeals to both sides to allow civilians to leave combat zones when it is the LTTE that is stopping their movement.

 

The military is "concerned with the welfare of civilians" as it mounts its offensive, Keheliya Rambukwella, a cabinet minister and defense spokesman, said in Colombo yesterday.

 

The ICRC and the United Nations say an estimated 250,000 civilians are trapped in the conflict zone. The army says it has driven the Tamil Tigers into a 300 square kilometer (115 square mile) pocket in the northeast as it tries to end the group's 26- year fight for a separate homeland in the north and east of the island nation.

 

"The ICRC staff in Colombo are well aware that it is the LTTE that has barred the movement of civilians," the report on the Defense Ministry's Web site said. "It is true that the ICRC code of operation demands neutrality. Neutrality, however, demands objectivity in analysis and reporting, not generalizations that portray the government in a negative light."

 

Hoax Report

 

The government also condemned as a "hoax" reports of 300 civilian deaths and shortages of medicines. A recent appeal to the international community aimed at showing a humanitarian catastrophe in the Mullaitivu region "is found to be a total fabrication," it said in a statement on its Web site.

 

Mullaitivu's director of health services, the purported originator of the appeal, said it was "false and exaggerated," the government said. Medical supplies are awaiting clearance to be sent into Mullaitivu by road, it said.

 

Sri Lanka is trying to minimize the effect of the conflict on Tamils and will respect the "safe zones" declared for civilians by the security forces, President Mahinda Rajapaksa told India's Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee after talks in Colombo two days ago.

 

At least 23 civilians were killed when army artillery shells hit a safety zone yesterday, the TamilNet news agency in the north said, citing unidentified medical officials.

 

Laws of War

 

Sri Lanka's government and the Tamil Tigers are "violating the laws of war by targeting civilians and preventing them from escaping to safety," Amnesty International said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

 

New York-based Human Rights Watch said urgent action is needed to prevent civilian deaths.

 

"The LTTE has long prevented civilians under its control from fleeing to government-held areas" and is refusing to allow UN and international aid workers to leave Wanni, it said.

 

"The Sri Lankan government has contributed to the risk to civilians by detaining those who managed to flee from LTTE areas," Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

 

The UN will today attempt for the second time in three days to help evacuate hundreds of wounded civilians from the north, including 50 children, according to an e-mailed statement yesterday from the UN office in Sri Lanka. A UN convoy has been trapped for days in the town of Puthukkudiyiruppu, which lies in territory held by the Tamil Tigers, according to the statement.

 

The LTTE yesterday denied it is preventing the convoy from leaving, TamilNet reported, citing S. Puleedevan, director of the group's Peace Secretariat. "The LTTE has been repeatedly urging the ICRC to facilitate the unhindered transportation of injured civilians," he said.

 

Fighter jets bombed LTTE positions in Mullaitivu district yesterday, the Defense Ministry said in a separate statement.

 

Sri Lanka estimates the LTTE has only about 1,000 fighters left after its political headquarters in Kilinochchi was captured on Jan. 2. Some defense analysts say the number of Tamil Tiger fighters is higher and the group is resorting to guerrilla warfare in the jungle terrain of the north.

 

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 28, 2009 19:57 EST

 

Print

Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Trademarks

 

Education for Liberation!

Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta

Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

Key Link: http://www.NetworkAztlan.com