Sri Lanka army accused of carnage
A Tamil Tiger spokesman has accused the Sri Lankan government of shelling civilians and wreaking carnage during its military offensive in the north.
The government has denied the allegations, in turn accusing the rebel group of targeting civilians.
The army has said at least 25,000 civilians have fled the Tamil Tiger-held area.
The rebels have so far rejected government calls to surrender, or face a final assault.
The rebel spokesman, who gave his name as Thileepan, spoke to the BBC by telephone with the sound of explosions in the background.
He said a hospital, an orphanage and many houses had been hit and huge numbers of civilians had been killed in a military onslaught of the area.
He said people had been reduced to hiding under logs and trees and using makeshift bunkers dug into the sand.
‘Human avalanche’
The Sri Lankan military has denied shelling civilians inside the rebel-held area.
Army spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara told the BBC that only small-arms had been used.
He said the Tigers were targeting civilians because they knew that if non-combatants left, the rebels would be “sitting ducks”.
The army says three rebel suicide bombings had targeted fleeing civilians, killing 17.
One Tamil man who had just left the conflict zone said the rebels tried to shoot anyone planning to escape.
Local newspapers are covered with pictures of large numbers of people leaving rebel territory, says the BBC’s Charles Haviland in Colombo.
One calls the process a “human avalanche”.
People escaped after troops broke through a fortification which had been blocking their advance into the Tigers’ last stronghold, the army said on Monday.
Aerial video showed thousands of people filing out of the combat zone. Tens of thousands remain in the area, which has seen heavy fighting for months.
The pro-rebel TamilNet website said several hundred civilians were feared killed and injured after troops advanced into the zone.
Each side accuses the other of killing civilians in the long running civil conflict.
Foreign reporters are not allowed into the combat zone, making it impossible to independently verify the claims.
The Tigers are restricted to a 20 sq km (12.4 sq miles) coastal patch that the government has designated a “safe zone” for civilians.
Gordon Weis, the UN spokesman in Sri Lanka, said it was not known how many civilians remained there but that the UN had been working off a figure of some 150,000 to 200,000 people in recent months.
Our correspondent says life for the Tamil civilians in the zone is a nightmare.
There has been shelling for months, while the UN says the Tigers are preventing people from escaping, despite rebel denials.
The government is not giving the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) access to the landward side of the zone.
So it can only evacuate people by sea, with two or three ships per week each carrying 400 or 500 of the sickest, oldest and most badly wounded people.
While describing the greatest escape in its body, this article’s title is based on a single statement issued by a LTTE-supporter, giving a very wrong unsupported, picture of what is going on. According to most recent headcounts by local registry sources, exceeding 49,000 civilians have escaped the tiger grip last 24 hrs. Media should highlight the eyewitness accounts on atrocities committed by LTTE on escaping civilians, by firing and setting suicide bombs killing dozens as seen on Monday alone, instead of accusing the army based on mere propagandist statements. You will find hundreds of evidence from escapees on the cruelty of LTTE. The videos and photos issued by TRO, and shown in CNN alike are the casualties caused by LTTE fire, not by army fire. If you need evidence on how LTTE fire their heavy weapons in the NFZ, look at the UAV footages of SL released recently to media. DONT be blind to those clear sources. CONDEMN the LTTE cruelty on civilians. DONOT whitewash terrorists, it is against humanity.
it is very sad to see BBC bing bias towards LTTE in publishing head lines….”Srilnakan Army kills civilians” Doing carnage”…the truth is thousands of civilians are moving towards gove controlled area looking of their freedom..isnt it clear to a average mind which way ppl are runnig in vedios and why LTTE use sucide attacks to aviod ppl moving…..if BBC has one reprter in Srilnaka please get a statement from one civilian who has crossd the border recenly to know how LTTE has cept them as shild all this time…if not call one of the international deligate in Sri Lanka and ask wats happenig now coz they are watching the situation live on Air forece aril camaras..this is a joke BBC put head lines and says the statemtn is made by Tamil Rebles….why cant a goventment statemtn be ahead line or a statemtn by UN or Red cross be a head line…Is BBC news editors are part of a link to trrorist orgs………….shame
Sri Lankan army is even using the banned cluster bombs and chemical weapons. On April 6th chemical weapans used against LTTE front line fighters and almost 600 to 1000 people died including Ltte and Tamil civilians.
On April 19th almost 1000 people died in the heavy attack on LTTE front line and into the civilian area. No media or aid groups allowed into the war area (it is like in Sudan-Darfur area).
The government of Sri Lanka is still using the ‘war on terror’ as a cover to all of their actions. Since January almost 6,000 people died and more than 10,000 people injured. This is one of the worst war crime in this century. I hope everything will be exposed one day. But as the government of Sri Lanka hiding all their crimes in a planned way. So, it will take time before the truth come out to the world.
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