Sri Lankan bombing, civilian casualties and LTTE positions
There have been 38 aerial bombings by the Sri Lankan Air Force during the CFA period. Three of them were after the latest direct talks in Geneva in October. In two of the bombing, one in Paddalipuram in Batticaloa and the other in Kilinochchi, seven civilians have died. The Kilinochchi bombing in particular badly damaged the main hospital in Vanni and put its hospital patients and services in danger. Yet, the reporting style of almost all the bombings, including the one on Kilinochchi hospital, has been as follows,
“Sri Lankan Air Force bombs rebel positions……” The confidence that the international reporting had that only “rebel positions” are bombed by the Sri Lankan Air Force and whatever civilian casualty are those caught in crossfire must be completely shattered by the Kilinochchi hospital bombing. The following evidence will prove that this bombing was no mistake but deliberate. The hospital is only 2 Kms from the Kilinochchi city centre. Within one Km radius of the hospital there are no military related LTTE camps or positions. This can be confirmed with the SLMM which has now conducted a full survey of the area surrounding the hospital. To have dropped 12 bombs within 500 metre radius of the major hospital in Vanni is no accident, it is deliberate. 
These are pictures of felicitations that appeared in the local dailies for the two students killed and for a mother who died of heart attack in the hospital. In this context, the unashamed spin doctoring by the GoSL also reveals the success it has had in similar unashamed spin doctoring in the past. The GoSL expectation that its claim that the hospital was damaged due to poor construction would indeed be swallowed by some reporters is not unfounded. Also truth is unearthed a few days after the event is not considered news worthy by the international media. Thus when the media first reports, “Sri Lankan Air Force bombs rebel positions……”, a disservice to the truth has already been committed. The muted international condemnation for this deliberate attack on the hospital surroundings brings even more grief to the distraught Tamil people.
04 November 2006
|
Europe which has a total population of 800 million is made up of 45 language based nation states. South Asia which has a total population of one billion, (1000 million) is comprised of four states. Who is preventing and therefore benefiting by limiting new nation-states in South Asia?
Print this
Email this
more
