Sri Lanka: Day of slaughter blamed on government guns

Tamil civilians try to move to safety following a shell attack in Tiger controlled No Fire Zone in Mullivaaykaal, Sri Lanka yesterday. Photo / AP

The bitter endgame of Sri Lanka's civil war may have provided its bloodiest day yet after 378 civilians trapped inside the conflict zone were reportedly killed by a barrage of government artillery. A further 1,100 civilians were said to have been wounded.

A doctor working inside the war zone, a tiny patch of land still held by Tamil rebels in the north-east of the country, said the artillery barrage - which the government has denied - lasted from 5pm on Saturday afternoon until 9am yesterday morning. He said it raged throughout the night. The pro-rebel TamilNet website said 2,000 civilians were feared dead.

By phone last night from a makeshift hospital in the conflict zone, Dr V Shanmugarajah said the clinic was now "overwhelmed". He added: "It's very difficult to manage. There is a shortage of staff, few facilities. [The injured have] abdominal injuries, limbs injured, head and chest: from shrapnel."

There is no independent verification of the claims; journalists and almost all aid workers are banned from the war zone. But if the figures are correct, the death toll would represent one of the worst in a single day during the 30-year-old civil war.

An international source in Colombo, with knowledge of the war zone, said: "We have no reason not to believe this is correct." The UN believes about 6,500 civilians have been killed since the beginning of the year and well over 10,000 injured.

Amid a chorus of international calls for restraint, the government two weeks ago said that it would not use heavy weapons as its troops pushed into the last holdout of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) where up to 50,000 civilians still remain trapped.

But medical officials in the conflict zone say there have been repeated air strikes and artillery barrages despite this undertaking. On Saturday, Human Rights Watch said there was evidence that the government had repeatedly shelled the last remaining hospital in the war zone and that commanders who have taken such decisions could be "tried for war crimes".

The military last night repeated its claim that it had not fired the artillery rounds and said the firing had come from the LTTE itself. Previously, the government has said the testimony of medics in the war zone cannot be trusted as they are under the control of the LTTE.

"We are not using any sort of artillery," said a spokesman, Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara.

"The LTTE are firing. They have fired mortars and 120mm [guns] towards the safety zone."

The final assault upon the LTTE, which once controlled large parts of north and eastern Sri Lanka, is happening in a tiny coastal strip measuring little more than two square miles. It is estimated that fewer than 1,000 fighters are in the war zone, along with up to 50,000 civilians.

The military has said that more than 100,000 civilians have been able to escape in the past couple of weeks as it has breached the rebels' defence and provided a safe passage. Aid groups and a number of survivors have said the LTTE has prevented civilians from leaving and even fired at them as they sought to flee.

Anywhere up to 200,000 Tamil civilian are now being interned forcibly in refugee camps, surrounded by razor wire, as the authorities process them and prepare to begin clearing mines from villages in the north of the country. Aid groups said the civilians could be held in the camps - overwhelmed by the sheer numbers - for 12 months or more.

The LTTE and its leader Vellupillai Prabakharan have been fighting for an autonomous homeland for decades, saying that Sri Lanka's Tamil minority has suffered repeated discrimination by the Sinhala Buddhist majority. Its guerilla war tactics included the repeated use of suicide bombers against both civilian and military targets.

The government's operation to crush the rebels followed the breakdown of a ceasefire agreement in January 2008. Then, President Mahinda Rajapaksa expressed his determination to end the war within 12 months.

Many analysts say a settlement with the Tamil minority will not be met until the government agrees to greater autonomy. Mr Rajapaksa, whose brother heads the powerful defence ministry, has said he will work on a political settlement but only after the rebels have been defeated militarily.

- THE INDEPENDENT