11 years today - More cluster bombs hit No Fire Zone

 07 May 2020

Marking 11 years since the Sri Lankan military onslaught that massacred tens of thousands of Tamils, we revisit the final days leading up to the 18th of May 2009 – a date remembered around the world as ‘Tamil Genocide Day’. The total number of Tamil civilians killed during the final months is widely contested. After providing an initial death toll of 40,000, the UN found evidence suggesting that 70,000 were killed. Local census records indicate that at least 146,679 people are unaccounted for and presumed to have been killed.

See more at www.RememberMay2009.com, a collaborative project launched last year, between the Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research, Tamil Guardian and 47 Roots.

7th May 2009

Photograph from US State Department report of “characteristic cluster bomb smoke cloud from a shelling on May 7 in Mullivaikkal".

More cluster bombs hit No Fire Zone

The Sri Lankan army launches cluster bombs inside the No Fire Zone, one of several such attacks in the last few months.

In the UN’s OISL report, witnesses “described the objects exploding in mid-air and releasing many smaller objects in the air before impacting the ground”.

“Cluster munitions release bomblets over a wide area above a target that explode on impact. However, indirect fire munitions may also be configured to explode into fragments overhead.  OISL believes that given the persistent nature of the allegations of cluster munitions, further investigation needs to be carried out to determine whether or not they were used.”

Photographs leaked in 2016 appear to confirm the use of cluster bombs by the Sri Lankan government. The photographs showed demining teams excavating cluster munitions from Kilinochchi and Chalai in Mullaitivu, sites of heavy bombardment by Sri Lankan forces.

Deminers unearth an RBK-500 AO-2.5RT cluster bomb near Chalai. Photograph: The Guardian/Together Against Genocide

A former Mines Advisory Group (MAG) employee told the Guardian that cluster bombs had been found in a “densely civilian-populated area” in one of the ‘No Fire Zones’ near Puthukudiyiruppu.

Previously the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice released a series of witness stories from the final war zone, which included testimony of a cluster bomb attack.

“The main bomb explodes in the air and splits into many pieces,” the witness said. “One kind of cluster bomb, used in Iranaipalai, produced colorful ribbons. Children were attracted and picked pieces up; as they handled the pieces they exploded.”

In a statement released weeks earlier, the Tamil National Alliance said,

“The use by the Sri Lankan State of internationally banned weapons, such as cluster bombs and chemical weapons, has been a characteristic feature of the current phase of the war being waged against the Tamil people.”

“The Tamil people in the island of Sri Lanka are clearly being subjected to Genocide.”

Also, see more in our feature: Leaked photos confirm cluster bomb use in Sri Lanka (19 Jun 2016)

LTTE commits to full support of ICRC

The LTTE released a letter from its Political Head Quarters, stating that it “reiterates its full commitment and support to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)”.

“We also wish to reiterate our organisation’s total commitment to the safety and security of the members of the ICRC in carrying out its humanitarian work and its other mandated activities,” it added. “Please take this letter as the necessary security guarantees from the LTTE for performing the work of the ICRC.”

“We are aware of the GOSL and its armed forces’ attempts at deliberately launching military manoeuvres in LTTE controlled areas to thwart the activities of the ICRC. We take this opportunity to express our deep appreciation of all the invaluable work done by the ICRC with regards to the immensely suffering Tamil civilian population due to the genocidal war waged against the Tamil people by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL).”

Photographs: A crater from a shell attack on May 8th 2009.

Small scale ICRC evacuations continue

Meanwhile, the ICRC said that "heavy fighting is taking place near the medical assembly point at Mullavaikkal, which puts the lives of patients, medical workers and ICRC staff at great risk."

495 Tamils were evacuated from the final conflict zone by boat to Trincomalee and Pulmoddai.

An ICRC evacuation taking place in April 2009.

Jacques de Maio, the ICRC head of operations for South Asia, in Geneva said, "not all the wounded could be evacuated today, and it is of the utmost importance that more evacuations take place over the coming days".

"The food and medical supplies that have been delivered remain insufficient to cover the basic needs of the people there."

Tamil human rights activist abducted in Colombo

Stephen Sunthararaj was abducted by five men whilst travelling in his lawyer’s car in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo. Stephen, an activist with the Centre for Human Rights and Development, is a father of three children who were all under ten years of age when he was abducted.

Diaspora protests continue

British Tamil students protest in London in 2009.

Meanwhile, protests in capitals across the world by the Tamil diaspora continue. In London, a student protester Siva told TamilNet.

“The whole world is now well aware of the plight of the Tamils under the chauvinistic Sinhala-dominated Sri Lankan state. Hundreds of Tamils being massacred or starving to death each week, Sri Lanka’s slow genocide has is accelerating. Yet the continued inaction by some powerful states, while other states support Sri Lanka, is allowing this to continue.”

British Tamil students added,

“what is needed right now is action by the international community, not merely words of sympathy.”