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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ACCUSES TAMIL TIGERS OF USING CIVILIANS AS A BUFFER VIOLATING INTERNATIONAL LAW

By Walter Jayawardhana

The London based Amnesty international accused the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who are in control of Sri Lanka’s Northern Wanni area of designing measures to use civilians as a buffer against government forces - a serious violation of international humanitarian law.

The Amnesty in a statement said, “In the LTTE-controlled Wanni area, the Tigers have hindered thousands of families from moving to safer places by imposing a strict pass system and, in some instances, forcing some family members to stay behind to ensure the return of the rest of the family. These measures seem designed in part to use civilians as a buffer against government forces - a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”

The Amnesty also accused the Tamil Tigers of recruiting people to fight unwillingly in its statement: “The LTTE has also engaged in forced recruitment.”

The organization also criticized the Sri Lanka government of keeping the refugees in camps and not allowing them to go freely except for children to go to school. “Amnesty International has also received reports that the government is housing those who have been able to leave LTTE areas in temporary shelters that often operate as de facto detention centres. Witnesses from Kalimoddai camp in Mannar district told Amnesty International that more than 200 families who are held there cannot exit the camp for any reason (except to go to school) without obtaining a pass from the government's security forces.”

While seeing to the shelter, food and sanitary need of the people the government forces also have to see to the security of the refugees and the surrounding areas since it was the practice of the LTTE to send saboteurs with refugees in the Eastern Province, military sources said.

The statement further said, “Thousands of families who fled the recent fighting between Sri Lankan forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) must be allowed to move to safer areas and to receive necessary humanitarian assistance, Amnesty International said today (14 August 2008).
“'These people are running out of places to go and basic necessities,' said Yolanda Foster, Amnesty International's Sri Lanka researcher. 'The Tigers are keeping them in harm's way and the government is not doing enough to ensure they receive essential assistance.'

“Government aerial bombardment and artillery shelling since May has forced more than 70,000 people to flee their homes, primarily in Kilinochchi and Mulaitivu districts.

“Amnesty International has established that around a third of these families are living in the open air with no shelter. Many cannot receive food, tarpaulin for temporary shelters and fuel because of a lack of access into LTTE-controlled areas and restrictions on goods going through Omanthai - the crossing point between government-controlled territory and that held by the LTTE. Some families have been forced to move several times.”

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