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While everyone runs out we walk into the hospital –a doctor from Kilinochchi

Dr Thooyavan said that the bombing of Kilinochchi hospital on 2 November 2006 brings on memories of another hospital bombing when he walked into a hospital that has just been bombed while most in the hospital were running out. Time was 1990, and the Sri Lankan military were shelling from the Dutch Fort in Jaffna. The Jaffna hospital being within the firing range was shifted to the Green Hospital in Manipay. Sri Lankan bombers dropped bombs on the Green Hospital in Manipay. Two people standing in front of the hospital died. Dr Thooyavan attended to the dead. The roof of the operation theatre of the hospital was damaged.

Dr Thooyavan was also woken up on the morning of August 14 2006, when the school camp in the Senchcholai complex was bombed killing more than 50 instantly and wounding more than 150. When he went to the Dr Ponnambalam Memorial hospital in Puthukkidiyiruppu, injured students were arriving on motorbikes.

Dr Thooyavan graduated in 2006 with training given by many visiting overseas experts, but he had practiced war medicine for more than 15 years prior to that. He is a member of the LTTE. A book written by him about his medical experience during war, “War and Medicine” has been published in Tamil. English translation of the book, translated by Dr Whitehall from Townsville University in Australia will be published soon.

The above experiences, recounted by Dr Thooyavan, of hospitals being bombed were his own. The list of hospitals that have been bombed and shelled by the Sri Lankan military in last two decades are very long indeed.

06 November 2006

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