'Civilians die' in S Lanka battle

[oberliner]

Source: BBC

There have been fresh reports of civilian casualties as ferocious battles continue in Sri Lanka between soldiers and Tamil Tiger rebels.

A senior government heath official in rebel-held territory told the BBC at least 15 civilians had been killed in shell attacks in the past two days.

The military has strongly denied being responsible for the incident, in which more than 100 people were injured.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7931319.stm

[Vehl]

1. of course the military will deny...cos they do it

It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out the fact that the Srilankan military has been killing civilians by the hundreds every week; especially shelling hospitals and places of refuge. if anyone doubts it they ought to look at the reports by the amnesty international; human rights watch; UNICEF and doctors without borders which document dozens if not hundreds of such attacks by the military on the civilian populous.


but the rest of the world does not have anything to "gain" from speaking against the lankan government hence they do nothing except making statements expressing "concern" :(

[Idealism]

2. No one hesistates to call Al Qaeda terrorists, but the Sri Lankan government? Never.

[Vehl]

3. exactly

with the US eying the southern lankan harbor as a possible base..and India and china vying for the Trincomalee harbor; and Pakistan/India fighting over each other to be the "arms supplier/big brother"...its not surprising there was no condemnation.


Only the Norwegians were really interested..and their monitoring mission was unceremoniously kicked out of the country by the Srilankan government

The SLMM ruled the execution-style killings of the aid workers in Muttur a breach of the Ceasefire Agreement. Earlier, the SLMM charged that the Sri Lankan authorities are deliberately hampering efforts to investigate the murder of 17 aid workers, some of whose relatives also blamed the military for the killings. “I have experienced this in the Balkans before. When you're not let in, it's a sign that there's something they want to hide,” Henricsson told Reuters two weeks ago.

“You have a lot of time to clear it up. If there was clear evidence for the LTTE to have done it, why not let us in to see it?” Henricsson said amid accusations by the Sri Lankan government the Tamil Tigers carried out the massacre. “They (government forces) are denying us access to the whole area, so we cannot monitor. There were journalist trips arranged to Mutur. That was possible, but we had no access. Why? For security reasons? Of course not. There are other reasons.”

Major General Ulf Henricsson was the head of the Srilanka monitoring mission


The massacre of 17 aid workers was one of the Most under reported news event of 2006, given the fact that this was the largest single killing of aid workers in the past few decades. :(



Ps: The Srilankan President is also a citizen of the united states and a court case against him has been filed in the Us courts last year; accusing him of genocide.