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| Saturday, 16 August 2003 |
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by Sandasen Marasinghe The identities of the attackers are unknown and the reasons behind the attack still unclear, Balthasar Staehelin, the acting head of the ICRC delegation-Baghdad noted in a letter to Catherine Gendre, Deputy head, ICRC in Sri Lanka, in connection with the attack on the vehicle in which Nadeesha Yasasri Ranmuthu was travelling in Iraq on July 22. Nadeesha, an ICRC radio operator trainer for the ICRC staff in Iraq succumbed to his injuries while Mazen Hameed Rasheed, the Iraqi ICRC driver suffered critical gun shot injuries to both their way to Baghdad from Hillah. The letter further noted that the ICRC has not received any threats prior to the attack and no group or individual has claimed responsibility for it since. The vehicle in which Nadeesha was travelling bore the large ICRC logo and ICRC flag. According to the letter the vehicle had departed with the ICRC sub delegation for Baghdad around 10.10 a.m. on the day in question. After having passed through the village of Mahawil the driver had noticed a vehicle following them some 5 kms south of Hillah. The driver recalled to have spotted that vehicle earlier parked at the side of the road in Mahawil. The vehicle following the ICRC car described by Mazen as a white pick-up truck with a double cabin (and by the account of an Iraqi eyewitness as a single cabin) carrying three people pulled out and passed the ICRC car. As the white pick-up truck drew even with the ICRC vehicle one of the passengers opened fire with an automatic weapon into the driver's side of the vehicle killing Nadeesha and critically injuring the driver. However the driver of the ICRC vehicle had managed to stop the vehicle by the side of the road approximately 20 kms north of Hillah. Around 10.40 a.m. the radio room at the ICRC sub delegation in Hillah had received a distress call from Mazen and the radio room in turn had contacted the head of the sub delegation of Hillah who was at a meeting with the United Nations and he immediately had left the meeting to go to the site of the attack. Later around 11.05 a.m. the vehicles heading from Baghdad to Hillah stopped at the site of the attack and noticed the two ICRC casualties in the vehicle. The injured driver was transported in an ICRC vehicle to a hospital dispensary before being transferred to the surgical hospital in Hillah. A coalition force vehicle which approached the scene had transported the body of Nadeesha Yasasri to the Hillah morgue before it was flown to Sri Lanka. The City Coroner who held the inquest into the death of Yasasri recorded a verdict of homicide by cerebral laceration following discharge of a high velocity rifled firearm from a distance. He further instructed the Police to inform the incident to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for further investigations. AJMO Dr Ajith Jayasena held the post-mortem. Lawyer Chandrapala Kumarage watched the interest of the deceased. |
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