UN Security Council Fails to Act While Civilians Suffer, HRW

New satellite imagery and eyewitness accounts contradict Sri Lankan government claims that its armed forces are no longer using heavy weapons in the densely populated conflict area in northern Sri Lanka, Human Rights Watch said today.                

Local sources have reported that more than 400 civilians have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded since May 9, 2009, as a result of artillery attacks on the thin coastal strip where fighting continues between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

According to doctors who spoke to Human Rights Watch, at around 8 a.m. on May 12 the makeshift hospital at Mullivaikkal was again shelled, as many wounded civilians were waiting for treatment. Nearly 1,000 patients were in the hospital at the time of the attack, including many wounded during attacks on May 9-10. A shell reportedly exploded in front of the admission ward during visiting hours, when many relatives came to visit patients, and doctors usually arrived for work. Doctors reported that the attack killed 49 people (26 immediately, others later succumbing to injuries); another 31 injured remain in the hospital. Among those killed was the administrative officer of Mullaitivu Regional Director of Health Services, who was arranging admission of a patient. A doctor said that the shelling came from the direction of Iraddaivaikal, where government forces are deployed. Human Rights Watch and other independent monitors have not been permitted access to the conflict area by the government, so cannot confirm these casualty figures.