Sri Lanka was defiant in the face of international criticism after Army artillery pounded a refugee camp last week, killing scores of civilians and wounding a hundred more.
“While we regret this whole episode, we also say that national security is utmost and it has to be maintained," Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, Defence Spokesman told reporters.
“And as such defensive action by the authorities is something that is inevitable.”
The government also claimed the LTTE had fired artillery from near the IDP’s camp at Vakarai and was thus to blame for the deaths.
But international ceasefire monitors who spoke to survivors dismissed the claim.
"Our monitors saw there were no military installations in the camp area, so we would certainly like some answers from the military regarding the nature and reasons of this attack," Helen Olafsdottir, spokeswoman for Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), said.
Sri Lanka troops at the border checkpoint refused to allow seriously injured civilians to be transported to Batticaloa and delayed Red Cross personnel and other aid workers from reaching the shattered camp.
And unbowed by international protests, Colombo continues to insist that national security is paramount.
Perhaps it is because for all the harsh words, there is little the international community is doing in practice to compel Sri Lanka to desist from hitting civilians.
Civilians have been targeted by Sri Lankan artillery and airstrikes several times in the past year and repeated international protests haven’t been matched by curtailing of aid or other punitive measures.
Even when the US protested about the shelling of the Vaharai refugee camp that killed at least 42 civilians and wounded a hundred, Washington, a staunch ally of Sri Lanka, did not condemn the action – it merely ‘strongly regretted’ the massacre.
But the US pointedly blamed the Colombo military and demanded punitive measures against those responsible. US irritation was fuelled by the Army’s firing artillery at the head of the international monitors in Sri Lanka.
“The United States strongly regrets the loss of innocent life caused by the shelling by the Sri Lankan military of a camp for internally displaced persons in the Vakarai region in eastern Sri Lanka on November 8,” the State Department said.
“We exhort the Sri Lankan Government to adopt corrective measures to prevent civilian casualties that also take into account instances where civilians may be used as ‘human shields’ in the future,”
“We call upon the Government of Sri Lanka to conduct an immediate, independent investigation into the November 8 incidents and bring the responsible parties to justice.”
“We are also disturbed that the Head of the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission and his delegation came under fire in Pooneryn in the north of Sri Lanka the same day.”
The US urged government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers “to honor their commitment to abide by the cease fire, end all hostilities immediately, and return to negotiations to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.”
Canada condemned the attack and echoed the call for the violence to end for talks.
“This incident demonstrates once again the heavy price paid by civilians caught in this long-standing conflict,” said Foreign Minister Peter MacKay.
Reacting soon after the attack Wednesday, Amnesty International said it “is appalled that the military should attack a camp for displaced people - these were civilians who had already been forced from their homes because of the conflict.”
“[We] condemn all attacks on civilians and is particularly saddened and shocked to see such a large-scale attack on civilians' just days after the government's announcement of its Commission of Inquiry into human rights abuses”
The ICRC, which escorted badly wounded survivors to hospitals, said it “deplored the tragic loss of life and the injury to civilians resulting from the shelling, of the densely populated area of Kathiraveli, a coastal hamlet north of Vakarai.”
An ICRC convoy of six ambulances, a bus, a truck and three cars reached the hospital in LTTE-controlled Vakarai, to which the dead and the wounded had been brought.
The ICRC transferred 69 serious cases to Valiaichchenai hospital, a better equipped facility in the government-controlled area. A second ICRC convoy returned to the area today to deliver aid to civilians there.
“While we regret this whole episode, we also say that national security is utmost and it has to be maintained," Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, Defence Spokesman told reporters.
“And as such defensive action by the authorities is something that is inevitable.”
The government also claimed the LTTE had fired artillery from near the IDP’s camp at Vakarai and was thus to blame for the deaths.
But international ceasefire monitors who spoke to survivors dismissed the claim.
"Our monitors saw there were no military installations in the camp area, so we would certainly like some answers from the military regarding the nature and reasons of this attack," Helen Olafsdottir, spokeswoman for Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), said.
Sri Lanka troops at the border checkpoint refused to allow seriously injured civilians to be transported to Batticaloa and delayed Red Cross personnel and other aid workers from reaching the shattered camp.
And unbowed by international protests, Colombo continues to insist that national security is paramount.
Perhaps it is because for all the harsh words, there is little the international community is doing in practice to compel Sri Lanka to desist from hitting civilians.
Civilians have been targeted by Sri Lankan artillery and airstrikes several times in the past year and repeated international protests haven’t been matched by curtailing of aid or other punitive measures.
Even when the US protested about the shelling of the Vaharai refugee camp that killed at least 42 civilians and wounded a hundred, Washington, a staunch ally of Sri Lanka, did not condemn the action – it merely ‘strongly regretted’ the massacre.
But the US pointedly blamed the Colombo military and demanded punitive measures against those responsible. US irritation was fuelled by the Army’s firing artillery at the head of the international monitors in Sri Lanka.
“The United States strongly regrets the loss of innocent life caused by the shelling by the Sri Lankan military of a camp for internally displaced persons in the Vakarai region in eastern Sri Lanka on November 8,” the State Department said.
“We exhort the Sri Lankan Government to adopt corrective measures to prevent civilian casualties that also take into account instances where civilians may be used as ‘human shields’ in the future,”
“We call upon the Government of Sri Lanka to conduct an immediate, independent investigation into the November 8 incidents and bring the responsible parties to justice.”
“We are also disturbed that the Head of the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission and his delegation came under fire in Pooneryn in the north of Sri Lanka the same day.”
The US urged government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers “to honor their commitment to abide by the cease fire, end all hostilities immediately, and return to negotiations to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.”
Canada condemned the attack and echoed the call for the violence to end for talks.
“This incident demonstrates once again the heavy price paid by civilians caught in this long-standing conflict,” said Foreign Minister Peter MacKay.
Reacting soon after the attack Wednesday, Amnesty International said it “is appalled that the military should attack a camp for displaced people - these were civilians who had already been forced from their homes because of the conflict.”
“[We] condemn all attacks on civilians and is particularly saddened and shocked to see such a large-scale attack on civilians' just days after the government's announcement of its Commission of Inquiry into human rights abuses”
The ICRC, which escorted badly wounded survivors to hospitals, said it “deplored the tragic loss of life and the injury to civilians resulting from the shelling, of the densely populated area of Kathiraveli, a coastal hamlet north of Vakarai.”
An ICRC convoy of six ambulances, a bus, a truck and three cars reached the hospital in LTTE-controlled Vakarai, to which the dead and the wounded had been brought.
The ICRC transferred 69 serious cases to Valiaichchenai hospital, a better equipped facility in the government-controlled area. A second ICRC convoy returned to the area today to deliver aid to civilians there.
