Six civilians, including 2 women and 3 children, were wounded as the Sri Lankan Army opened fire on them at the Cheddikulam internment camp.
One 8-year-old child was severely wounded and had to be urgently transferred to Anuradhapura hospital from Vavuniyaa hospital after the incident.
The incident occurred after several days of heightened unrest and increasing tensions, which saw civilians held at the clamp clash with Sri Lankan Army soldiers.
The group of 6 were said to have gone to collect firewood as they were shot at by the SLA.
With the World Food Programme no longer providing cooked meals, as of September 17th, and a lack of basic cooking facilities, collecting firewood is one of the few remaining ways in which civilians can cook food.
This is the first undisputed example of soldiers opening fire on civilians held in these camps.
The Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence claimed that the group were trying to escape from the camps, where they are being held against their own will.
However, this breaks a pledge by Brig. S Perera, the senior military official in charge of the camps in Vavuniya.
He earlier insisted to reporters that anyone trying to flee would be “tackled to the ground”, instead of being fired upon.
The Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence stated that the civilians were an “unlawful gathering”.
Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara also later claimed that soldiers were pelted with stones.
In an interview with Reuters, he stated “a man tried to lob a grenade. Our people (soldiers) fired towards that area for self defence and to prevent escape".
Each civilian has been tediously “screened” by the Sri Lankan Army, before being forced into the barbed wire enclosed camps.
Nineteen civilians at the camp were arrested following the shooting. No soldiers were hurt in the incident.
This follows reports of an earlier clash between civilians and Sri Lankan Army soldiers that occurred after the arrest and assault of 31-year-old youth Paranchami Chandramohan.
The young man was arrested by force and moved to an unknown area of the Poonthotham Teachers Training College in Vavuniya, which is currently being used as an “unofficial detention centre” according to Amnesty International.
He was not seen for over two days, despite constant requests from the civilian inmates of the camp, which prompted them to throw stones and attempt to breach the fences of the camp.
He was then released to Vavuniya hospital for treatment.
Amnesty International confirmed that they were aware of the existence of “at least 10 such facilities in school buildings and hostels originally designated as displacement camps in the north” and that “there have also been frequent reports of other unofficial places of detention elsewhere in the country.”
The international aid organisation also reported how several paramilitary groups, namely the EPDP, PLOTE, TELO and both TMVP factions are also active in Vavuniya and “have been implicated in human rights violations”.
Many international organisations, such as the New York based Human Rights Watch, have criticised the camps as a form of “illegal detention” and described them as “open prisons”.
There have also been warnings that the rapidly approaching October monsoon rains could create a massive crisis in the low lying and congested camps.
“The civilians locked up in these detention camps have a right to liberty now, not when the Government gets around to it,” Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said.
“Sadly, the Sri Lankan Government has a track record of lying, deceiving and breaking promises to civilians displaced by the conflict,” he said.
“The UN, donors and bilateral partners should demand immediate, concrete progress and not let themselves be fooled again by empty Government promises.”
Colombo claims to have released nearly 10,000 civilians, but it has emerged that many have simply been moved to smaller transit camps, in other districts.
Approximately 280,000 civilians remain trapped in the camps.
