Doctors flee hospital as shelling continues in Sri Lanka

The Toronto Star
May 14, 2009

The only hospital in Sri Lanka's war zone was abandoned by doctors and aides amid unrelenting shell attacks, reported a health official today. Thousands of civilians braved rebel gunfire and fled across the front lines, according to military officials. Medical staff of the hospital huddled by a nearby bunker because of the non-stop shelling. In the midst of this, cries could be heard from the hundreds of patients unable to leave the hospital, begging for food and water. The Red Cross reported that the tiny strip of coastal land controlled by the rebels was "wracked" by violence, even though international appeals for the two sides to end the war were made. The aim was to allow the estimated 50,000 civilians that were trapped in the area to escape. Even though the number of wounded was rapidly increasing, the medical staff fled the hospital in the region, after multiple shellings this week in attacks that killed close to 100 people, a health official said. Approximately 1,000 people were killed during other attacks last weekend in the conflict zone. Nearly 400 badly wounded patients needing treatment stayed in the facility today, along with 100 other dead bodies. Wounded civilians fled after the second shell attack hit the hospital Wednesday. As the military pressed ahead with the offensive, 2,400 civilians waded across the lagoon barrier between government and rebel forces, under rebel gunfire, trying to escape the area. The majority of the civilians did escape the area, although 4 were killed and 14 others wounded. Still, 2,000 civilians were on the far shore, waiting to cross the lagoon. The Sri Lankan governement has cornerned the Tamil Tigers, vowing to end the 25-year-old conflict. US President Barack Obama has made a statement about the situation, demanding the rebels lay down thier arms and release those trapped by the stand off. He also urged the government to stop firing artillery into the war zone. The United Nations Security Council issued similar demands to both sides and expressed grave concern at the worsening humanitarian crisis.Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona said the government was "extremely reassured" by Obama's call for the rebels to lay down their weapons and release the civilians, and he denied the government was firing artillery into the densely packed war zone.The rebels' political chief, Balasingham Nadesan, praised Obama in a statement emailed to The Associated Press "for passionately talking about the plight of Tamil civilians and calling for urgent actions to alleviate the mounting humanitarian crisis." The rebels did not address his call for their surrender.

This situation in Sri Lanka is yet another example of the sad and desparate plight of civilians who are caught between the cause of a rebel group and government forces. This is sadly a drama that has played out repeatedly around the world. This 25-year-old conflict in Sri Lanka is fed by ex-patriot Sri Lankans who continue to support the Tamil Tigers who have been identified internationally as a terrorist organization. On the other hand, many see them as "freedom fighters" fighting for a heroic cause: their own homeland. In my opinion, both the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government are to blame for this great humanitarian crisis. It is the civilians who are ultimately suffering including the hospital patients caught in the attacks. According to US State Department Spokesperson Ian Kelly (http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/17483), we must "try and press the Government of Sri Lanka to adhere to international standards for the operations of camps, to press them to stop the use of heavy weapons, to allow civilians to leave the conflict zone". In my opinion, we will, as an international community, need to intervene here through sanctions and if necessary the use of peacekeeping forces if further loss of civilian life is to be prevented. If we look historically at this conflict, we can see that the British colonization of the island of Sri Lanka set up the socio-political situation that has led to this tragedy. The divide and conquer rhetoric of the British "raj" is what many political scientists feel has led to the conflict we see in Sri Lanka between the Hindu Tamils and the Buddhist Sinhilese. One wonders how many generations it will take before we are able to escape the tragic actions of the past century and free ourselves as a world community from the partisan concerns about religion, race, and language.