Ministry regrets naivete of ICRC in Geneva
The Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights regrets a recent
statement made in Geneva by the International Committee of the Red
Cross, which fails to note current ground realities in Sri Lanka.
The statement appeals ‘to both sides’ to allow and facilitate the
safe and voluntary movement of civilians out of the combat zone’ and
notes that ‘Hundreds of patients need emergency treatment and evacuation
to Vavuniya Hospital in the Government-controlled area,’ states Prof.
Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary, Ministry of Disaster Management and Human
Rights in a press release.
The statement was issued on the very day that the LTTE refused
passage to ambulances which were to leave the LTTE controlled area for
the hospital in Vavuniya which has throughout the last few years
provided treatment to all patients sent there by the Government doctors
who continued to man all hospitals in the LTTE controlled area. The
statement was issued a few days after two UN agencies finally issued
categorical requests that the LTTE permit the civilians it has been
detaining for so long to move into Government controlled areas.
The ICRC staff in Colombo is well aware that it is the LTTE that has
barred the movement of civilians, despite which, braving execution by
the LTTE, several thousands have now found their way to Government
controlled territory.
The ICRC staff in Colombo are aware that the UN thought that it had
painfully negotiated permission to leave for members of staff and their
dependents, only to find them stopped, so that two international staff
too felt obliged to stay behind for the safety of these hapless
civilians.
On the day the ICRC in Geneva issued its demarche, the LTTE refused
permission for those two international staffers, along with the
ambulances, to leave LTTE controlled territory. The ICRC staff in
Colombo may not be aware that the LTTE have been firing from the area
which the Government had declared a safe zone. Initially the
international community, which clearly never learned the philosophical
skill of induction, was not sure who had fired. The Bishop of Jaffna, as
befitted his training, was sharper. In asking the Government to extend
the safe zone, he declared that he and his colleagues ‘are urgently
requesting the Tamil Tigers not to station themselves among the people
in the safety zone and fire their artillery-shells and rockets at the
army. This will only increase more and more the death of civilians thus
endangering the safety of the people’.
Later that day the UN also realised the truth and asserted that ‘we
believe that firing this morning most likely was from an LTTE position.’
The fact that Geneva seems oblivious to all this suggests either wilful
ignorance or naivete. It is true that the ICRC code of operation demands
neutrality. Neutrality however demands objectivity in analysis and
reporting, not generalizations that portray the Government in a negative
light.
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