Sri Lanka rebuts allegations in European Parliament
Sri Lanka rebuts allegations in European Parliament
"No military operation to defeat
terrorism in the world is conducted without difficulty to the civilian
population who live in the afflicted area. In the achievement of our
military dominance over the LTTE, the civilians, held at gun point by
the LTTE have been the centre of our concerns", said the Charge d'
Affaires of the Sri Lanka Embassy in Belgium, accredited to the European
Union, Ms. Saroja Sirisena, at a meeting of the Human Rights Sub-
Committee of the European Parliament held in Brussels yesterday (31).
In the past 2 months, the Security
Forces have held back their strength, even at the cost of suffering
casualties themselves. The ground reality has unfortunately been
disregarded in the European Parliament's Resolution of 12 March and
makes several unsubstantiated assertions which the Government of Sri
Lanka finds objectionable, she added.
Speaking further, she said "We do not
need to be reminded of the responsibility towards our citizens nor of
our commitments in the international arena. It is accepted by the UN
Resident Coordinator in Colombo, that the figure of 2300 civilian deaths
and 6500 injuries since late January this year attributed to unnamed
'credible sources' cannot be substantiated. These are the very same
figures quoted by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the
International Crisis Group and also stated in the LTTE website Tamilnet.
These 'anecdotal' figures are stated as fact in the European
Parliament's Resolution of 12 March".
"To the contrary, we have at all
times observed extreme caution in the operational area, conscious that
civilians are being used by the LTTE as a human shield. It is the LTTE
that abused the 48 hour no fire period declared by the Government to
move heavy weaponry into safe zones, explode suicide bombs in welfare
centres and on food convoys and continues to fire at civilians fleeing
the uncleared areas. It is only last week that the LTTE targeted anti
aircraft missiles on the SLAF engaged in evacuating civilians from their
last strong hold in the Wanni. Despite this more than 60,000 civilians
to date have entered into welfare centres through the safe zones
established by the Government", she strongly rebutting the charge
against the Government of indiscriminate shelling of civilians noted
that.
