BBC’s Chris Morris reports hoax as news and ignores humanitarian crisis caused by Tamil Tigers

By H. L. D. Mahindapala

(January 29, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) There is a huge humanitarian crisis building up in Mullativu – the last strip of land held by the Tamil Tigers with nowhere else to go.

Chris Morris, the first reporter to visit Mullativu, told BBC that the town is empty after the Tamil Tigers took the people away with them. In other words, he is admitting that the Tamil civilians were not given a choice but “taken away by the Tigers” to the jungles where the Tigers have dug in as their last stand against the advancing Sri Lankan forces. .

The crisis is worsened by the obstructionist tactics of the Tigers. A BBC website site quoted the UN as saying that the Tamil Tigers have not given permission to transport hundreds injured, including 50 children, to government hospitals just across the border of the Tiger-controlled area.

BBC report adds: “The UN says the convoy has been trapped for days in Puthukkudiyiruppu, across the lines of confrontation in Tamil Tiger-controlled territory.”

BBC report also said: “On Tuesday, military authorities said that sixteen ambulances, seven trucks and one other vehicle that had reached the LTTE roadblock, were denied permission to proceed by the Tamil Tigers.”

Defence Spokesman Minister K. Rambukwella said unfortunately the LTTE withdrew its consent to transfer patients at the last moment, though the government had made arrangements to transfer the patients.

The BBC report confirmed this when it reported: “On Tuesday, military authorities said that sixteen ambulances, seven trucks and one other vehicle that had reached the LTTE roadblock, were denied permission to proceed by the Tamil Tigers.”

Each obstruction placed by the Tamil Tigers is affecting the Tamil civilians who are urgently in need of help. The objective of the Tigers is to deliberately create a humanitarian crisis hoping that it would prompt the international community to intervene and stop the advance. In the process it is the Tamil civilians who are facing the brunt of the obstructionist tactics of the Tamil Tigers – the self-proclaimed protectors and liberators of the Tamils.

Unable to face the advancing forces and holed up in a tiny strip of land Mullativu the Tamil Tigers are playing up “the humanitarian crisis” as the last card up their sleeve to save their skins. On the one hand, they use the Tamil civilians as a human shield against the advancing forces on the ground and, on the other hand, they are using “the humanitarian crisis” caused by them to win international sympathy. As stated above, there is a crisis but it is caused by the Tamil Tigers to gain political mileage from the international community to halt the advancing forces.

Right now the Tamil Tigers are cranking up this anti-government propaganda on large scale. But this is not going to save the Tigers even with cock-eyed Chris Morris joining hands to cry stridently about the “humanitarian crisis” in the north. He was told bluntly by the Defence Gotabaya Rajapakse that the government will not stop its offensive because this has been the ploy of Tigers to rearm, recoup and attack again.

Chris Morris, in his dense way of not seeing the root cause of the humanitarian crisis, too is directing his questions and slating his reports to blame the government. But he has not commented or questioned the obstructionist tactics of the Tamil Tigers that is exacerbating the crisis. His line of questioning and reporting is to stop the war which would provide some badly needed oxygen to the Tamil Tigers.

If the Hamas, for instance, in Palestine obstructed aid going to the people of Gaza the BBC would scream from rooftops. But when the Tamil Tigers obstruct aid going to the Tamils Chris Morris has nothing to say. Not a word. He prefers to pose before the cameras as if he is the knight in rusting armour rushing like Quixote to save the Tamils. He is now earning reputation as the best “phut-phut” driver of BBC in Colombo weaving his way in complex forces to earn a crust.

He cuts a pathetic figure each time he comes to report on “the humanitarian crisis” which he pretends is caused by the Sri Lankan government and not the Tamil Tigers. He looks as if he had walked out from the hilarious pages of Evelyn Waugh’s classic novel, The Scoop, in which an ignorant English country bumpkin doing the rounds on gardening in his newspaper is sent to cover a war. He lands in a peaceful country and his reports sent back home actually causes a war.

Chris Morris is yet to discover the obstructionist tactics of the Tamil Tigers or the placing of their heavy artillery among Tamil civilians, or the hoax of 300 civilians who are reported to have died, according to ICRC.

This story originated in the Tiger propaganda mills, according to government sources. The Tigers had circulated a copy of letter purported to have been sent by Dr. Varatharaja, Regional Director of Health Services (RDHS), Mullaitivu drawing the attention of the Government, Ministry of Health of Sri Lanka, ICRC, UN Agencies and international community to the alleged 300 deaths and 1000 injured of civilians living in the uncleared areas of the Mullaitivu district as a result of continuous multi-barrel artillery shelling, during heavy fighting in those areas of the Mullaitivu district.”

Exposing this “appeal” to the international community as a “hoax” and “fabrication” Dr. Athula Kahandliyanage, Secretary, Ministry of Healthcare & Nutrition, says that he is in regular contact with Dr. Varatharaja, Regional Director of Health, Dr. Sathyamoorthy, RDHS, Kilinochchi “on a daily basis by telephone” and also with the Advisor for North and East to the Minister of Healthcare & Nutrition, Dr. V. Jaganathan”.

According to Dr. Varatharaja “there had been only six deaths and 15 wounded following a shell falling into the Pudukkudiyiruppu hospital last week and on further inquiry, he said he was not sure whether it was fired by the government forces or LTTE. He also said that there were about 300 injured admitted to Pudukkudiyiruppu hospital during the last few days.

Dr. Kahandliyanage quotes Dr. Varatharaja as reporting: “Gathering from what was revealed, I am of the opinion that so many civilians have not been wounded as claimed……. It has been found that the terrorists fight in civil clothes and when they get wounded they can be mistakenly considered as civilians. Furthermore, the terrorists forcibly keeping the civilians as a human shield may result in civilians getting wounded by accident.”

Chris Morris, the BBC’s man on the spot, may not want to accept this evidence but he has a duty to give the other side of the story. But then when Morris believes that there is only one side to the story why should he bother to report about the other side, eh? - Sri Lanka Guardian