13 years today - Another hospital bombed as chemical warfare continues

 

12 May 2022

Marking 13 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’. 

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. By examining different sources, including the United Nations, census figures and World Bank data, the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) found that the highest estimate of those killed during that final phase could be as large as 169,796. 

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

12th May 2009

Another hospital shelled

Photographs: The aftermath of an attack on a makeshift hospital on May 12th 2009.

Artillery shells were fired at a makeshift hospital set up at a school in Mullivaikkal, killing dozens.

HRW reported that nearly 1,000 patients were in the hospital at the time of the attack, including many wounded during the May 9-10 attacks.

The OISL reported,

“According to witnesses, at around 8 a.m., on 12 May, shells fired by SLA fell directly in front of the admission ward of the facility, killing at least 20 people, including a district health administrator, medical volunteers, a nurse, and many patients. Many died instantly, others succumbing to injuries, some as a result of lack of medical care and medicine.”

“The shelling occurred at a busy time of the day, with many injured civilians from earlier attacks waiting for their treatment.”

“(A) witness described how there were many injured patients and many dead bodies all together in one place, people crying all around. Medical supplies were almost exhausted.”     

One witness said,

“There were so many dead bodies that they could not be separated.  There were pieces of bodies everywhere…”

Another said,

“It was a terrible sight, with people dead and dying everywhere inside the hospital”

The US State Department report said,

“One shell landed in front of the admission ward, killing 26 people instantaneously.”

“Among the casualties was the Administrative Officer of Mullaittivu Regional Director of Health Services (RDHS), who was killed while arranging a patient’s admission to the hospital.”

“A witness at the hospital said that the shelling came from the direction of Iraddayvaikkal, which GSL forces had recently captured. Another source said that in addition to the 49 killed, scores of others were wounded, and he expected the death toll to rise. Shells were still hitting the area hours later, including one that landed about 150 yards from the hospital.”

“the smaller NFZ unilaterally declared by the GSL continued to come under attack.”

Photographs above and right: The aftermath of an attack on a makeshift hospital on May 12th 2009.

Elements of Sri Lanka’s 58 Division have reportedly entered the new civilian safe zone.

 

Chemical warfare

The OISL reports that later the same day,

“a shell landed near a tent accommodating hospital staff and volunteers, killing a nursing assistant and causing serious burns to six others”.

“At least two witnesses indicated that at that time, patients were being brought in with unusual burns, one of them describing the different parts of the body of the patients being blackened, with skin like “black charcoal”.”  

Several allegations of chemical weapons, including white phosphorus, being deployed by the Sri Lankan military have been made. The OISL continues,

“Likewise, while OISL received allegations of the use of white phosphorous, and witnesses described such incidents, particularly in the last few weeks of the conflict where bombs caused intense burning and blackened skin, it was not able to gather enough information to confirm that white phosphorous was used. OISL therefore believes that these allegations should also be investigated further.”

Dr Navaratnarajah Uyatchi, who was heading the last hospital in Mullivaikkal until the early hours of May 17th, told the British House of Commons in 2016 that he witnessed the Sri Lankan airforce drop chemical weapons within the vicinity of the hospital.

Also see our earlier posts:

Video of Sri Lankan soldier describing use of chemical weapons - India's News X (15 Mar 2014)

Catholic bishops want international probe into chemical weapon use (09 Jan 2014)

Phosphorus attacks covered up in hospitals (02 November 2013)

UN team confirms cluster bomb use in Sri Lanka (26 April 2012)

More evidence of Sri Lanka’s use of cluster munitions and white phosphorous bombs (27 April 2012)  

Colombo uses chemical weapons: LTTE (14 April 2009)

                                                          

US, UK want UN to facilitate 'safe evacuation' of civilians

Then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with then UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband. A joint statement issued after the meeting said the two, ‘’expressed their profound concern about the humanitarian crisis in northern Sri Lanka caused by the ongoing hostilities’’.

“They expressed alarm at the large number of reported civilian causalities over the past several days in the designated 'safe' zone”.

Photograph: Clinton and Miliband meet on May 12th 2009.

See the full text below.

“Secretary Clinton and Foreign Secretary Miliband call on all sides to end hostilities immediately and allow for the safe evacuation of the tens of thousands of civilians trapped within the safe zone. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam must lay down their arms and allow civilians free passage out of the conflict zone. The government of Sri Lanka must abide by its commitment of April 27 to end major combat operations and the use of heavy weapons.”

“Secretary Clinton and Foreign Secretary Miliband express their appreciation for the continued efforts of the United Nations and their staff on the ground in Sri Lanka. They call on the government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers to allow a UN humanitarian team to visit the conflict zone to facilitate the safe evacuation of civilians. They urge both sides to allow food and medical assistance to reach those trapped by fighting, cooperate with the ICRC to facilitate the evacuation of urgent medical cases, ensure the safety of aid and medical workers, and permit humanitarian access to all sites where displaced persons are being registered or being provided shelter.” 

“Secretary Clinton and Foreign Secretary Miliband call for a political solution that reconciles all Sri Lankans, and establishes a meaningful role for Tamil and other minorities in national political life.”

 

TNA says 150,000 trapped and warns of more bloodshed

The Tamil National Alliance held a press conference stating more than 3,000 civilians had been killed in the last 3 days alone and warned of further massacre.

All the TNA MPs in the country, with the exemption of one trapped inside the conflict zone, were present.

TNA leader R Sampanthan said,

 “there is genocide taking place in Vanni; the entire international community is being silent; we don’t want just statements of condemnations and pledges without any action; the killings of civilians must immediately be stopped; this is our urgent request”.

The MPs stated that there remain 120,000 to 150,000 civilians inside the conflict zone.

 

IDPs dying in Menik Farm

At least 61 elderly Tamil IDPs are reported to have died whilst captive at the Menik Farm IDP camp in Vavuniya, from May 1 to May 11.

The OISL says,

“Humanitarian workers reported sometimes seeing the bodies of elderly persons lying on the ground including two in different camps in June 2009. Many elderly were unaccompanied in the camps, in some cases separated from families who were in other camps and not able to reunite with them.  Many witnesses had also described the elderly as being particularly weakened by conditions in the conflict zone.”

“On 27 April, the Vavuniya District Magistrate Court had ordered that all IDPs over the age of 60 who were sick and without relatives in the IDP camps were to be transferred to homes for elderly people.  The decision was based on his findings that there were more than five deaths each day of elderly persons in the IDP camps due to starvation and malnutrition, and that the deaths of 14 elderly people had been registered in Manik Farm the previous day.”