ITRO - Connecting people for effective and efficient village recovery in the North-East of Sri Lanka

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ITRO PRESS RELEASE
3 November 2006

ITRO London strongly condemns the ghastly bombing by the Sri Lankan Air Force of a location adjacent to the Government General Hospital in Kilinochchi, within LTTE controlled area in Northern Sri Lanka, at 2.45pm on Thursday, 2 November 2006. Five members of a family were killed - a father, his brother and sister (all aged 60 years) and two sons seeking university entrance, as a result of their house getting a direct hit. In addition, according to the Director of the hospital, 300 in-patients and 700 out-patients were subjected to a horrifying experience. The patients included mothers with newly born babies, pregnant women waiting for delivery / admission and some receiving post-operative care. The military has said that it attacked a legitimate target.

The hospital authorities had applied to the ICRC to have the premises declared as a safety zone, but due to the delay in getting the Government concurrence, only a Red Cross flag was installed.

Severe damage occurred to a part of the hospital roof and staff quarters, and the shock waves shattered the window panes of the main building. The Nordic monitoring mission (SLMM) and international NGO staff located in Kilinochchi visited the hospital and surrounding areas immediately and assessed the damages. They have not found any evidence to substantiate the military's claim.

This newly built, foreign funded hospital, which was opened about 5 months ago, serves about 380,000 people living in Kilinochchi District and in some divisions of Mullaitivu District. Availability of primary healthcare facilities is acutely short and secondary medical facilities are almost non-existent. Patients travel up to 3 hours to reach the hospital from distant villages and towns, as this is the only hospital in the region where surgical treatment is available, although it has very limited staff and other medical resources. The bombing has severely curtailed the provision of the much needed medical attention to a region starved of all types of humanitarian support due to the closure of the arterial access to the area – the A 9 Road. The previous hospital got destroyed during the 2-decade armed conflict.

It is an irony that this major aerial attack occurred no sooner than the Government concluded a meeting in Colombo with the Co-chairs to the Tokyo Donor Conference, when the envoys of the Co-chairs received assurance that the Government would not resume military action.

The bombing should be considered as a Government display of callous disregard not only to the plight of the vulnerable civilians, but also to the expectations of any civilised society. The Tamil community is dismayed that these indiscriminate bombings on civilian areas, carried out by the Sri Lankan military with impunity, is becoming a common occurrence, thus showing a total disregard to the International Humanitarian Law and norms. The inability of the international community to introduce measures to end this 'State terrorism' and provide protection to the civilians is also extremely disheartening .

ITRO London is a coordinating and standard setting body for Tamil humanitarian organisations.

Dr Soma Arunachalam President, ITRO

V Paramanathan Director, ITRO

Source: ITRO LONDON
Date: 03 November 2006