Genocide in Sri Lanka: 1496 Tamil civilians killed including 476 Children

By G. Vickram/TNS
April 21, 2009: 1496 civilians including 476 of children were killed and 3333 more were injured including hundreds of children when indiscriminate rain of shells including cluster types of shells, Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher, long range gun fire, point blank firing and MI24 gunship firing by the Sri Lankan Security Forces (SF) hitting government announced "Safe Zone" in Mathalan and Ampalanpokanai area as SF forces using civilians in the area as human shield and advancing with full and relentless fire power in Mulaitivu area on Monday April 20, according to the civilian sources in Mulaitivu.

"An eyewitness says he is witnessing unbearable human catastrophic situation for the civilians in the making in Vanni, while the world community maintaining defining silence on the carnage. Dead and wounded in their hundreds scattered in the open in the area where SF troopers entered into the potion of the Safe Zone..."

SF used excessive amount of internationally banned cluster bombs on the civilians. According to the news reporter in the Safe Zone, Sri Lankan forces also using chemical weapons on these innocent civilians.
An eyewitness says he is witnessing unbearable human catastrophic situation for the civilians in the making in Vanni, while the world community maintaining defining silence on the carnage. Dead and wounded in their hundreds scattered in the open in the area where SF troopers entered into the potion of the Safe Zone.
Cluster shells and smoke or white-dust-emitting shells that made people to faint were widely deployed on civilians by the Sri Lanka Army in its effort to capture them. However, a large majority of the civilians fled towards LTTE held areas while around 8,000 were trapped and captured by the SF trooper.
By Monday afternoon, the SF troopers were pushed back from parts of the civilian areas it had boxed earlier in the day. However, civilians fear waves of attacks similar to the one on Monday to follow in the forthcoming days. The exact condition of the civilians captured by the SF trooper is not known.
Meanwhile, schools in Northern Province scheduled to start after term holidays on Tuesday were ordered by Colombo not to be re-opened until further orders. It is speculated that the Sri Lankan government plans to accommodate captured civilians in the schools.
SF troopers' indiscriminate aerial and shell attacks killed hundreds and many hundreds injured within past few months while displaced over 300,000 including 40,000 children who are living in subhuman conditions. At least 4500 civilians were killed and over 10,000 injured within past three months of shelling in the war zone in Vanni. Also, UNICEF said, hundreds of children were killed thousands more were injured within past two months alone.




Source: TamilEalam News Service