COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Civilian casualties in Sri Lanka’s civil war have skyrocketed in the past two months as government forces indiscriminately shell the northern war zone and Tamil Tiger rebels fire on families trying to flee, Human Rights Watch said today.
The New York-based rights group called on both sides to immediately stop “the ongoing slaughter of civilians.”
The criticism came as John Holmes, the U.N.’s top humanitarian official, visited the country amid increasing concern for the fate of the ethnic Tamil civilians in the north. On Thursday, Holmes called on both sides to try to avoid civilian casualties.
He toured displacement camps near the war zone today and met civil, military and aid officials in the region, Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said.
In recent months, the military has cornered the rebels in a small strip of land in the northeast, where tens of thousands of civilians also are trapped.
Health officials and witnesses have accused the government of launching artillery barrages into areas crowded with civilians, while also accusing the rebels of shooting civilians who tried to escape. Confirmation of the allegations is not possible because independent journalists are barred from the area.
The violence has led to a “dramatic increase” in civilian casualties, with independent monitors estimating 2,000 civilians have been killed and another 5,000 wounded over the past month, Human Rights Watch said in a report today.
“This ‘war’ against civilians must stop,” James Ross, legal and policy director at the rights organization, said in a statement.
The group accused both sides of war crimes. It said the military was routinely shelling hospitals, heavily populated areas and government-declared “safe zones.” It also accused the rebels of attacking fleeing civilians and forcing those remaining — including children — into combat or deadly labor along the front lines.
The government has repeatedly denied causing any civilian deaths. However today, government official Rajiva Wijesinha told reporters some “collateral damage” may have occurred, but he said Human Rights Watch’s numbers were exaggerated.
The military was cautious to avoid civilian casualties, Wijesinha said, adding the government has no records on the number of civilians killed.
The rebels have denied holding civilians as human shields or shooting at those who flee.
In a statement on their Web site, the rebels said government artillery attacks Thursday killed 34 civilians. They also said a soldier being held as a prisoner of war was killed Wednesday in a government airstrike.
Aid groups estimate about 200,000 civilians remain trapped in the shrinking war zone along with the rebel fighters. The government says less than 100,000 civilians are there and that more than 30,000 have managed to flee across the front lines in recent weeks.
The Red Cross sent a ferry today to evacuate hundreds of sick and wounded patients from a makeshift hospital along a beach in the war zone, spokeswoman Sarasi Wijeratne said. The boat also was bringing 10 tons of flour for civilians stuck in the area, she said.
Human Rights Watch accused the government of secretly screening those fleeing to remove potential rebel sympathizers and detaining others in internment camps with the goal of keeping their ordeal from public scrutiny.
The group compiled its report after a two-week covert fact-finding trip to the region south of the war zone where many of the fleeing civilians are being held.
Meanwhile, government forces captured a three-story underground bunker believed to have been a hiding place for rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, who remains at large, said military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara. The bunker was surrounded by guard posts and watch towers and covered with camouflaged nets, he said.
The Tamil Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for an independent state for minority Tamils after decades of marginalization by the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.
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