UN Calls 'Blood Bath' in Sri Lanka

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Sri Lankan armed forces bombed "safe zones"

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SRI LANKA DIRTY WAR MAY 10 2009 - genocide continues WAE

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The weekend bombings and barrage by the Sri Lankan armed forces in the self declared "safe zone" killed more than 1400 people were killed. The figure could be higher. More than 3,500 people were injured. It is estimated more than one hundred thousand Tamil civilians are cornered
‘Bloodbath’ in Sri Lanka barrage, U.N. says
Doctor says 1,000 Tamil civilians likely slain in shelling over the weekend

About 6 p.m. Sunday, a new round of shelling — less intense than the first — pounded a newly demarcated "safe zone" where the government had urged civilians to gather, according to Dr. V. Shanmugarajah, who works at a makeshift hospital in the war zone.

A total of 393 people were either brought to the hospital for burial or died at the facility Sunday, while another 37 bodies were brought in Monday morning, he said. More than 1,300 wounded civilians came to the hospital as well, he said.

However, the death toll was likely far higher, he said. Many of the dead were buried in the bunkers where they had taken refuge and then were killed, and many of the wounded never made it to the hospital for treatment, he said.

"There were many who died without medical attention," Shanmugarajah said. "Seeing the number of wounded and from what the people tell me, I estimate the death toll to be around 1,000."

Volunteers dug mass graves in the marshland near the hospital, putting 50 to 60 bodies in each pit, he said. One of the hospital's nurses was killed along with his family in a trench that was then filled with soil and turned into their grave, he said.  Read full article: msnbc.msn

U.N. Tells of ‘Bloodbath’ in Sri Lanka
“The U.N. has consistently warned against the bloodbath scenario as we’ve watched the steady increase in civilian deaths over the last few months,” Gordon Weiss, the U.N. spokesman in Sri Lanka, said Monday. “The large-scale killing of civilians over the weekend, including the deaths of more than 100 children, shows that that bloodbath has become a reality.”

Read detailed report: New York Times

U.N. blasts Sri Lanka weekend attack as 'bloodbath'

The rebels blamed the government, which in turn said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had fired on the people it has been holding hostage for months in a last-minute move to secure international pressure for a truce to stave off defeat.

Getting a clear picture of events in the war zone is next to impossible, as it is generally closed to outsiders and those within it are not fully independent of pressure that is often applied at gunpoint.

Diplomats and officials said the U.N. Security Council was due to have another informal meeting over Sri Lanka on Monday in New York with the foreign ministers of Britain and France, who had a stormy visit to Sri Lanka at the end of April, both due to attend.

The council is split over whether to elevate discussion over Sri Lanka's war to a formal level where it could act. The United States and Britain are pushing to get a ceasefire, while Russia and China have opposed that.

Source: reuters

Photos: Tamilnet