ICRC head creating false phobia - Weerawansa

Dhanushka GODAKUMBURA

National Freedom Front Leader Parliamentarian Wimal Weerawansa alleged that the head of the ICRC in Sri Lanka Paul Castello was trying to give oxygen to the LTTE terrorist organisation which was breathing its last and said he should be declared persona-non-grata and extradited from the country for doing so.

Addressing a press conference in Colombo yesterday, Weerawansa said the ICRC head after importing 35,000 body bags was trying to create a false international impression to the effect that security operations carried out against terrorists now restricted to a small area in the North was causing genocide among civilians.

When damage to civilian life during large scale security operations in the East and the North was minimal in the past, importing of 35,000 body bags at a time when operations were restricted to a small area in the Vanni clearly proved the ICRC head’s sinister motives, Weerawansa said.

Weerawansa said the ICRC head is also alleged to have directed his local representatives to collect data for a war crimes tribunal recently. The ICRC head had turned down a Government request to shift the Puthukuduyiruppu hospital to the safe zone.

After turning down the request, he was using the incidents created by heavy weapons of Tiger’s in the hospital grounds to abuse the Government and security forces of targeting hospitals, Weerawansa said.

The United Nations which issued a statement based on a report by the ICRC head claiming that the Government was using cluster bombs later had to retract it and apologise to the Government.