“STOP LTTE TAMIL TERRORISTS LIES ABOUT THE FINAL PHASE OF THE WAR, MAY 2009 IN SRI LANKA” by Ranjith Galabada

UNHRC  has failed to prove with  evidence that the allegations made by pro LTTE Tamils have any substance. On 23rd March 2017, GSLF sponsored and handed over a comprehensive report called “A Factual Appraisal of the OISL Report: A Rebuttal to the Allegations Against the Armed Forces” (the “Rebuttal”) to the Human Rights Officer, Asia-Pacific Section, Mr. Thomas Hunecke,  at the 34th Human Rights Council session negating all allegations.

Information gathered by OISL indicates that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the LTTE launched attacks from the close proximity of hospitals. LTTE constructed military fortifications (mostly earthen bunds and trenches) and positioned artillery and other weaponry close to, and sometimes adjacent to hospitals and the surrounding densely populated civilian areas, marked by a heavy presence of makeshift tents or shelters belonging to IDPs. In doing so, the LTTE failed to comply with its obligation to take all feasible precautionary measures to protect the civilian population from attacks.

From February 2009 onwards, the LTTE started point-blank shooting at civilians who attempted to escape from the conflict zone, significantly adding to the death toll in the final stages of the war. It also found that LTTE fired artillery in proximity to large groups of internally displaced persons (IDP‘s) and fired from, or stored military equipment near, IDP‘s or civilian installations such as hospitals. Most of the LTTE carders were in civil cloths to show to the world that SLA fired and killed civilians. 

A Tamil nursing officer who served at the Anandapuram makeshift hospital stated that the facility had functioned for about 20 days in February 2009. There had been a large Armory located near the hospital and there had been a Kfir attack on the Armory which had destroyed it, but not the Hospital. He added that two days later there had been a similar attack on the makeshift hospital but by then the patients had been moved as the Medical Superintendent had decided to shift the hospital after the attack on the Armory.

The location of LTTE military positions, occasionally in the vicinity of hospitals and United Nations premises, and used at times to fire from near hospitals calls into question the LTTE‘s own respect for their obligations to take all feasible precautions to protect the civilian population and civilian objects against the effects of attacks.

The nurse attached to the Hospital has said that LTTE had gun-mounted vehicles manned by LTTE carder who were in civil cloths.  See the picture below that proves it.