As many of you have heard, allegedly about 1000 Tamil Civilians have been killed by shelling just TWO DAYS in the so called "no-fire zone in Sri Lanka . These people have been caught in the ongoing battle between the Sri Lankan Army and the Tamil Tigers. Though there is ample evidence and history to prove that the Sri Lankan Army is behind these shelling, I was not there to state it as a fact. The fact is civilians are being massacred.
The world community needs to first stop this massacre and investigate the perpetrators
A doctor working inside the no-fire zone in Sri Lanka today told the Guardian that more than 1,430 people were believed to have been killed in two days of air and artillery attacks.
Dr V Shanmugarajah said 381 bodies brought in to the temporary hospital inside the government safe zone yesterday, with another 49 brought in by 1.30pm today. He warned that reports from survivors led him to believe that as many as 1,000 more people could have been killed.
"Shells are falling into the new safety zone," he said. "Today there was more shelling in the safety zone."
Shanmugarajah said most of the deaths had been caused by shelling, but added that there had also been an attack by a Sri Lankan air force Kfir jet.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
The Sri Lankan Army claims otherwise
T
he army has pinned down the last of the Tigers in a 2.3 sq mile (6 sq km) strip of land on the northeastern coast, along with an estimated 50,000 civilians, and appears likely to defeat the rebels after 26 years of civil war.
It says that the doctor, V. Shanmugarajah, has been either indoctrinated or intimidated by the Tigers. Verifying information from either side is impossible as the Government has banned most independent reporters from the frontline.
However, UN officials said that the doctor’s testimony had been reliable in the past and that their information also indicated that there had been a massive artillery raid on Saturday and Sunday on the "no-fire zone" where the civilians are sheltering.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/...
Of course, Sri Lankan Army has made similar claims accusing the Tamils of propaganda and had to with draw the claim after United Nations released satellite images had shown them shelling civilians.
The Sri Lankan government has admitted carrying out air raids in the so-called no-fire zone in the country's northeast, where the army is battling Tamil Tiger fighters.
But Palitha Kohona, the Sri Lankan foreign ministry secretary, told Al Jazeera that the raids had been carried out weeks ago and that the military had focused only on the Tamil Tigers' artillery guns, well away from civilians.
"As long as the retaliation is proportionate, it is perfectly legitimate and what we did exactly was located these guns and retaliated against those guns," he said.
"I would challenge anybody to say that these shell holes were created once the civilians moved into the area and became occupied by civilians."
The apparent admission follows the leaking of UN satellite images showing evidence of such attacks, supporting claims by Tamil groups that aircraft had bombed the area the government designated a safe zone in February
http://english.aljazeera.net/...
To be fair. the Tamil Tigers are no angels, but they are basically a guerilla force, and do not have the heaving shelling capacity or the jet fighter bombers of the Sri Lankan Army. So it is very difficult to see how they could cause the massive damage, that has happened the past two days.
I ask fellow members of KOS , to write to their congressman to demand the US State Department to call for a cease fire and demand a impartial investigation. I am very careful not to accuse either the Sri Lankan Government or the Tamil Tigers. All I want is the massacre to be stopped and the mass murders brought to justice in The Hague.
There is no independent verification of the claims made by both sides as Sri Lankan Government does not permit any journalists in the war zone. Recently the British Channel 4 TV News was able to get a camera crew inside one of the many "internment" camps operated by the government of Sri LAnka to house the refugees. These journalists were arrested and journalists were expelled from the country.
Shocking claims have emerged of shortages of food and water, dead bodies left where they have fallen, women separated from their families, and even sexual abuse.
This programme obtained the first independently filmed pictures from the internment camps set up by the Sri Lankan government to house Tamils who have fled the country's civil war.
There are at least a hundred thousand Tamils from the country's north held in these camps, and while the government insists their stay there is temporary, aid workers say there is not as yet a concrente plan for their resettlement into the country's north.
As access to the camps is prohibited to journalists, unless they are under military escort, independent information about conditions inside is hard to come by.
Here is the Channel 4 link. http://www.channel4.com/...
This is how Presient Mahinda Rajapakse's brother defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa reacted to the report.
Channel 4 News's Nick Paton Walsh explains how he was ordered by the Sri Lankan government to leave the country, after they took exception to his report which was broadcast on Channel 4 News on 5 May.Â
It's not often that the most powerful man in the country rings you. I'd spoken amicably to defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa 45 minutes earlier about getting some better access to Sri Lanka's 25 year war. But this time he was calling me, and seemed to have remembered something.
"Who is this? You rang me earlier? Is this Channel 4? You have been accusing my soldiers of raping civilians? Your visa is cancelled, you will be deported. You can report what you like about this country, but from your own country, not from here". I'm missing out my interjections, but that's pretty much how you get deported in Sri Lanka.
http://www.channel4.com/...
More about:
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is known to have a short temper, especially when it comes to defending the Armed Forces. He has been accused of threathening journalists on several occasions, including telling two journalists attached to the state-owned Lake House Publications that unless they stop criticising the armed forces "what will happen to you is beyond my control". When asked by the two journalists if he was threatening them, he replied "No, No. I am not doing it. I am definitely not threatening your lives. I am not. What will happen is beyond my control. Our services are appreciated by 99 per cent of the people. They love the Army Commander (Lt. Gen. Fonseka) and the Army. There are Sri Lankan patriots who love us do and will do what is required if necessary." [11] This incident prompted one independent Sri Lankan newspaper to publish a picture of Rajapaksa with images of Hitler superimposed. [12] In April 2007 he allegedly called the Editor of the Daily Mirror Champika Liyanaarachchi and threatened her, saying that she would escape reprisals only if she resigned.[13] He also threatened to "exterminate" the Daily Mirror journalist Uditha Jayasinghe, for writing articles about the plight of civilian war casualties. Mr. Rajapaksa denied these claims. Further controversy was created when the British High Commissioner in Sri Lanka was summoned to Mr. Rajapaksa to explain why he had visited the allegedly threatened editor. [14] A New York Times story of 5 December 2008 quoted his news reporting position as "he insists that journalists should not be allowed to report anything that demoralizes the war effort." [6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Of course many Sri Lankan Journalists have been killed or fled the country in fera of their lives in the past year. The most prominent being Lasanatha Wickrematunga, a member of the Majority Sinhalese community.
Mr Lasanatha Wickrematunga may have, as some seem to be saying, been one of the worst kinds of gutter journalists. He may have been a mud-raker who exposed many shady deals of various government ministers and officials. Others may accuse him of a vendetta against the current President and his government, forgetting that he was an absolute irritant to the former President and her government as well. He may have been, as some would say a brave investigative journalist who was alone in exposing scandals that otherwise would have been swept under the carpet. Some would say he was a fool and had he been more accommodating, he would have been still living and enjoying a luxurious lifestyle.
Whatever he was, and whatever he did, he should not have been killed for what he was or what he did or did not do.
Even for the worst criminal tried and convicted by the justice system of the country, there is no death penalty in the country. In Sri Lanka, obviously there is a summary justice system that is above the law of the land, and some person/s that have this power have acted as vigilantes and decided Lasantha Wickrematunga should be executed.
Lasantha Wickrematunga’s murder is not just the murder of an individual, and neither is he the first journalist to be killed or the last to be killed as these vigilantes are still at large, free to roam the country and target others. None can forget the heinous murder of Richard De Zoysa and the fact that no one was ever caught for committing that dastardly crime. The fear and trepidation in the country today is that no one will ever be brought to justice for killing Lasantha Wickrematunga
http://www.asiantribune.com/...