Red Cross at Crossroads! Where are the wounded Tigers?

Are the Tigers using the Red Cross to slip away from the war zone and regroup?

By Ranjan Jayakody and Ranjit Surendran in Vavuniya

(March 07, Jaffna, Sri Lanka Guardian) What exactly is the role of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) in Wanni? Under normal circumstances and for the reputation the Red Cross (ICRC) enjoys globally, such a question need not be raised. But in respect of its operations in Sri Lanka certain pertinent questions need to be asked.

The primary obligations of the Red Cross are governed by international humanitarian laws that impacted the Geneva Conventions as well as customary international law to protect the victims of international and internal armed conflicts such as war wounded, prisoners, refugees, civilians and other non-combatants. Their role must be fair, just and non-partisan.

There is no doubt the Red Cross has been generally carrying out duties in Sri Lanka that fall in line with its declared and avowed principles. However, serious doubts have arisen in respect of the current scenario in Wanni. There is strong evidence now that weeks prior to the current military campaign, the people of various townships and farm villages were forced and persuaded to uproot themselves at short notice and march towards Mullaitivu and Puthukudiyiruppu.

The LTTE destroyed the latter town of what used to be a popular farming region, systematically uprooted the families there and converted it into a bunker fortress away from the much populated semi-urban Mullaitivu.

How come the Red Cross was not aware of the hundreds, even thousands displaced in similar manner by the LTTE in Puthukudiyiruppu and other townships in Wanni? Involved in the recent herded march were also the Catholic clergy and nuns headed by the Rev Father James Pathinathar. Also a letter circulated evidently to collect funds overseas was by a non-RC priest. He wanted his parishioners to go to Mullaitivu and Puthukudiyiruppu from Mankulam and Paranthan when the obvious place to go was Vavuniya.

This march to gather thousands as human shield and also to use them as a means to bargain a ceasefire was very much like the torturous march to which the LTTE subjected the people from Jaffna to Wanni in October 1995, another major uprooting of families and communities. Recently, LTTE’s ex-Constable-General and the current Political Commissar B Nadesan shed tears about people being uprooted from their communities while he himself was signing orders to force march the civilians against their will as human shields in Wanni.

Wasn’t here a humanitarian factor involved in this forced march and why did the Red Cross fail to alert its own authorities in Geneva let alone the Government of Sri Lanka?

Judging from some of the views that are being expressed especially to give a picture that the hundreds of Wanni people held hostage are doing so of their own volition raises some doubts. These come from some people who have been facilitated to leave the hostage trap under the supervision of the Red Cross.

While there is irrefutable evidence that those who have escaped often under volleys of gun fires at them by the LTTE from behind, how is that the people who indulge in anti-government views have not been harmed at all? It is their escape that seems to be facilitated by the Red Cross while the others who hardly communicate their experiences, views and opinions of what is really happening in the hostage quarter rarely ever get an ear. It is for them the LTTE spokespersons want to speak without ever listening to their needs and experiences.

Their views that do trickle in are packed with horror experiences they have faced from the LTTE and even accounts of being shot in the back. These folks are farmers and their families have gone through hell under LTTE rule for some years now. Their backs have been broken and their minds instilled with terror and nightmare. These are the people from whom children have been snatched away, even healthy bread-winning adults and pressed in the LTTE cadre. They have been waiting for their liberation from this Prabhakaran’s Pol Pot terror government.

Another curious factor belies one’s imagination and intelligence. Where are the LTTE wounded? If the Red Cross has aided their removal, where have they handed them over? Have they been mixed with the civilians without alerting the forces that are handling this operation? Is this a route to allow the Tigers to escape into the civilian community and aided to regroup?

Would this not mean that the ICRC is aiding the LTTE to regroup outside the war zone? Though already late, the Red Cross must publicly state the names and details of the wounded Tigers they have brought of Hostage City.

Soon after the tsunami a curious incident occurred at the army checkpoint at Omantai? It was a strange cargo the ICRC was believed to have carried as part of their assistance in Wanni, obviously for the LTTE. What is remarkable and even weird about this cargo was that it was casket of a unique kind meant for a dear departed to sleep eternally in air-conditioned splendor, a luxury worth $50,000 (US). At that time it was suspected that this privilege was to be conferred on Velupillai Prabhakaran.

It is time the ICRC comes out with details about this operation even though it occurred more than four years ago. Also during the latter 1980s many of the local ICRC workers in Jaffna by day were Red Cross workers and LTTE armed cadres during the nights. This was a widely known fact. It can also be construed that the local people who worked for the ICRC in Wanni would have been active LTTE personnel.

It is indeed very strange that there are many interviews being granted stressing the contention that the people held hostage are afraid of the armed forces and are staying with the LTTE in a hostage circumstance for their own safety. Furthermore, a common chorus that is being used to threadbare extent is that the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps are being managed in the style of Hitler’s concentration camps, an exaggeration that betrays firstly the reality and secondly that an organized but desperate campaign is being made to save the LTTE.

During the 1990s the LTTE would have been wiped out had not the government of that time stopped the successful campaign to purse the LTTE to the fullest. Since then thousands more have lost their lives. This serious mistake should not be repeated and terrorism of all kinds must soon be rid of Sri Lanka; sooner the better.

The military campaign that is causing utter havoc to the Tigers at Puthukudiyiruppu is ground attack literally from door to door and hand to hand. In a civil war that has lasted this long, even considered longest in Asia, civilian casualties are inevitable.

What is shockingly incredible with this civil war is that most civilian causalities come from the very people for whom the Tiger terror chief Velupillai Prabhakaran wants to be the sole voice. In a situation when the Sri Lankan Armed Forces could have rough-ridden through all the way, it is an honour and integrity of the forces that the safety of the civilians held hostage has been given top priority.

Ends -Sri Lanka Guardian