[Marxism] Sri Lanka rejects UN's Tamil casualty figures

[Stuart Munckton <stuartmunckton@xxxxxxxxx>]

The horrific massacres of Tamils, attempting to be downplayed by Sri Lanka
and blame placed on the LTTE, are some of the worst in recent history and
must go down on the historical record for the great crimes against humantity
they were.

Sri Lanka rejects UN's civilian casualty figures Julian Borger June 6, 2009

A SRI LANKAN official has estimated the civilian death toll from the last
stages of the war with the Tamil Tigers at 3000 to 5000 and defended the use
of mortars in a government-designated "no-fire zone".

Rajiva Wijesinha, the permanent secretary of the ministry of disaster
management and human rights, yesterday rejected reports that 20,000
civilians were killed as the army overran the Tigers. He also rejected an
unpublished United Nations report that 7000 people had been killed by the
end of April.

"I would estimate it altogether at 3000 to 5000," Mr Wijesinha said,
attributing the deaths to the Tigers' use of refugees as human shields.

"The Tigers had prepared this hostage situation and the figures went up very
badly," he said, adding that the UN figures had not officially been made
public because they had not been verified.

"These UN figures, I'm afraid, are not worth the emphasis that is placed on
them."

Sri Lanka has been accused by the UN and Western governments of using heavy
weapons against a "no-fire zone" it had designated for civilians caught up
in the last stages of the conflict on a narrow coastal strip in the
north-east of the island.

Mr Wijesinha said: "I asked the army and they said 'we said we're not using
heavy weaponry' but that does not preclude what they describe as
81-millimetre mortars, an infantry weapon. They were using infantry
operations, and never said they were not, in order to get the civilians
free."

Mr Wijesinha said the mortars were being used against Tamil Tiger heavy
weapons, including tanks, which he said were firing on refugees attempting
to flee.

A British official said there was no agreed definition of a heavy weapon,
but added: "Towards the end of the conflict, the civilians were crammed into
such a confined space any such weaponry would have a devastating effect."

Brad Adams, the Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said: "The Government
told people to go to the no-fire zone. They were packed into a small area.
Then they fired on them, with 81-millimetre mortars and other weapons. And
they denied again and again they were using these weapons … there is very
strong evidence that they did commit war crimes."

The source for many of the early reports of civilian casualties was a
handful of government doctors in the war zone, who described the scene at
makeshift clinics to the international media as the army offensive unfolded.

The Government has since detained them and there is confusion over their
fate. Mr Adams said they were being held to prevent information about war
crimes getting out.

Mr Wijesinha said he hoped the doctors, who include two hospital directors,
would be released "fairly soon", arguing they had been forced to give
harrowing accounts of civilian suffering by the Tamil Tigers.

"I think the doctors were under a lot of stress and they behaved as most
people would in such circumstances. We don't hold it against them at all,"
he said.

But the Human Rights Minister, Mahinda Samarasinghe, told the BBC yesterday
the doctors were being detained on "reasonable suspicion of collaboration
with the LTTE [Tamil Tigers]".

Guardian News & Media


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"The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of
dummy?" — Jarvis Cocker

"The basis of optimism is sheer terror" — Oscar Wilde
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