Sri Lanka rebels holding 300 patients hostage

THIS STORY IS A FALSE PROPAGANDA BY SRI LANKA GOV'T

ACTUALLY SRI LANKA KILLED 3OO TAMILS IN THE NORTH

THEN TURNS AROUND SPINS A FALSE STORY IN ITS STATE NEWSPAPER. THE PERSON WHO POSTED THIS STORY SHOULD

NOT PROPAGATE  A SRILANKAN GOVERNMENT THAT IS COMMITTING

GENOCIDE OF ITS OWN CITIZENS.

The Sri Lankan government has contributed to the risk to civilians by detaining those who have managed to flee LTTE areas, including whole families, in militarized detention camps, denying them freedom of movement.

"Civilians are scrambling for shelter in an area that is under heavy artillery fire, including many children, wounded, and elderly who need urgent assistance," said Adams. "The UN and concerned governments should press Sri Lanka to take all necessary steps to spare civilians from harm."

Over the last week, reports of high civilian casualties from the fighting have been reported by the few doctors in Mullaittivu district. The Sri Lankan army says it created a "safety zone" for civilians inside the war zone, but there are credible reports that shelling has occurred inside this zone.

According to the United Nations, a compound sheltering UN national staff inside the safety zone was shelled on January 24 and 25, killing at least nine civilians and wounding more than 20. On January 26, another artillery attack narrowly missed UN local staff working in the safety zone, but reportedly caused dozens of civilian deaths. In a January 27 statement, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) expressed concern that "[h]undreds of patients need emergency treatment and evacuation to Vavuniya Hospital in the government-controlled area." Because of government restrictions on the movement of journalists and human rights monitors, Human Rights Watch could not independently verify this information.

Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara told the media that "There were no civilians killed," and added: "We are targeting the LTTE. We are not targeting any civilians, so there can't be any civilians killed." Human Rights Watch said that the Sri Lankan military's blanket rejection of any civilian deaths in the latest fighting raised serious concerns about its genuine willingness to minimize future civilian casualties.

The government-ordered September 2008 withdrawal of all UN and nongovernmental humanitarian organizations (with the exception of the ICRC and Caritas) from the Vanni plunged the region into a serious humanitarian crisis, with acute shortages of food, shelter, medicine, and other humanitarian supplies. The humanitarian crisis was documented by Human Rights Watch in its December 2008 report, "Besieged, Displaced, and Detained." A companion report, "Trapped and Mistreated," focused on LTTE abuses against the civilian population in the Vanni.

"The government's near-total news blackout from the war zone prevents Sri Lankans and the rest of the world from knowing the full extent of the humanitarian crisis in the Vanni," said Adams. "The government can't just blame everything on the LTTE and wash its hands of responsibility for protecting civilians."

The conflict in Sri Lanka is governed by international humanitarian law. Human Rights Watch has long urged both the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE to abide by the laws of war, including taking all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians during military operations and ensuring that civilians have access to humanitarian assistance.