Trapped civilians shelled in no-fire zone

Hundreds of civilians are being killed or seriously injured in artillery and gun attacks as the Sri Lankan Army attempts to finish off the last Tamil Tiger rebels trapped in a shrinking pocket of land.

Injured civilians lucky to get out have told of carnage in this so-called "no-fire zone" - a 20 sq km strip of coast where the Tigers are penned in with their backs to the sea.

Horrific stories of limbs ripped off by shellfire and bodies buried where they fell are emerging, despite the Government's efforts to hide the scale of the killing by confining the injured to hospitals in a military area around the no-fire zone, from which the media are strictly excluded.

The casualties' accounts of a fierce onslaught on the no-fire zone and their severe wounds have been reported by doctors who have treated them at a field hospital at Pulmoddai, inside the military area, where thousands of evacuees have been taken by ship.

According to a doctor handling the casualties, shells are falling among the tightly packed tents and shelters housing tens of thousands of civilians, killing and wounding dozens every day.

"Most of the people have shell blast injuries and gunshot injuries. Some people have lost their limbs, other people have lost other parts of the body, some people have wounds in the abdomen, some in the chest," said Dr Gnana Gunalan, chairman of the local Sri Lankan Red Cross.

"All these people are very badly traumatised. Some have lost all their loved ones and come here alone."

The doctor said the accounts of the evacuees appeared to support previous claims from doctors in the no-fire zone that the shelling had not come from Tamil Tiger positions in the zone. The Government has vehemently denied firing into the zone, but it is not possible to verify the claims.

Gunalan - who is based in Trincomalee, surrounded by heavy Army security - said the field hospital at Pulmoddai had treated 1468 casualties among the 5456 people evacuated by sea from the no-fire zone in the last month. Doctors say most of those killed have been buried near where they died and there has been no attempt to bring out the bodies.

Until last month the Government allowed civilians injured in the no-fire zone to be taken to the larger and better equipped hospital in Trincomalee, but subsequently decreed they must be kept inside the military area.

At Pulmoddai the most serious injuries are stabilised by a team of Indian doctors working in temporary metal huts. By Saturday, 26 had died at the Pulmoddai field hospital.

It is not possible to verify the doctors' accounts, because neither side will allow access to the no-fire zone. The military has permitted international media access on occasional, supervised day trips to the surrounding military area only.

Two regional health directors, defying government instructions, have described at length the extent of the unfolding humanitarian disaster.

One, Dr Thangamutha Sathiyamorthy, said that civilians were still being killed and injured by shelling inside the zone. There had been a number of attacks by helicopters. He said many people had dug shelters in the sand to try to escape the shelling. "The fighting is continuing. Shells are falling. But these people have no alternative. They cannot move."

- OBSERVER

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