Wanni civilians urged to enter cleared areas

Dharma Sri ABEYRATNE

COLOMBO: The Government has always taken adequate steps to minimise civilian casualties when launching security operations while minimising the damage caused to public institutions and property, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said yesterday.

He said civilians in areas where military operations are going on are being urged to come to cleared areas as the Government’s main concern is to protect them.

“The civilians are being asked to come to Vavuniya. The Government will facilitate them with food, medicine and other requirements. After the military operations they will be resettled in their original places.

At the moment around 1,000 people have come to Vavuniya,” he said. “We plan to give passage to people from Kilinochchi to come to Vavuniya. We’re dropping leaflets from the air, encouraging people to leave, giving details of routes to take to safety,” he said.

The military operations are carried out on a “Zero Civilian Casualty” basis. “Even the LTTE websites don’t concentrate much on that since the Security Forces take every possible step to maintain zero civilian casualties,” Rajapaksa told a media briefing.

The military operations take a considerable time as the Security Forces pay special attention on maintaining zero civilian casualties. “Unlike military operations in other countries no civilian casualties are reported from Sri Lanka,” he said.

He said the LTTE has used Government owned buildings such as schools, buildings of various Ministries and Departments or even hospitals for their military activities. It was reported that the LTTE has built bunkers using these buildings. “It is clear that public buildings are not being damaged by military operations launch by Security Forces.” He said the military campaign was on track.