Sri Lanka - interview

Government and LTTE slaughtering civilians, says Human Rights Watch

Article published on the 2009-02-20 Latest update 2009-02-20 16:56 TU

A Tamil woman receives treatment at a hospital in the eastern port of Trincomalee
(Photo: Reuters)

The Sri Lankan government is "slaughtering" civilians and Tamil Tiger rebels shoot them if they try to escape, according to a report by New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch. A report after a secret mission to the conflict zone in the north-east of the island says that government forces have shelled schools and playgrounds and that refugees are kept in "detention centres".

"There are anywhere between 200,000 to 250,000 trapped in an increasingly shrinking conflict zone," researcher Charu Lata Hogg told RFI. "The LTTE is not allowing these civilians to leave. In fact, it is shooting at civilians who are trying to leave and escape the areas where the shelling is at its maximum."

She adds that the Sri Lankan government is "indiscriminately shelling and bombarding places, which they themselves have declared safe zones".

"They’re shelling hospitals repeatedly, playgrounds and, once the civilians do flee from there … they are taken into what we call detention centres with abysmal living conditions and no right to freedom of movement."

The report calls on the government to end a "war" on civilians in the narrow strip of land in which government troops have confined fighters from the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE).

It concludes that "both the Sri Lankan army and the LTTE were responsible for the dramatic increase in civilian casualties during the past month", and puts the figure at approximately 2,000 killed and another 5,000 wounded.

Human Rights Watch bases its assertions on secret visits by monitors to the area, despite a govenrment ban on journalists and NGOs going to the conflict zone.

Hogg accuses government troops of breaking international law by using inappropriate weapons in areas where civilian lives are at risk.

"We definitely have evidence of aerial fire and use of multibarrelled rocket-launchers," she says. "These are very imprecise weapons and therefore civilian casualties are high."