THE SILENT GENOCIDE OF TAMILS IN SRILANKA

ICRC clarifies position on body bags
[ Wednesday, 11 February 2009, 11:48.28 AM GMT +05:30 ]
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said today that it had placed a routine order for 2000 body bags in January this year of which 1000 were handed over to the Security Forces Headquarters in Vavuniya following their verbal request.
A further 500 body bags were ordered that same month to replenish its stocks, the ICRC said in a news release today. The clarification from the ICRC comes amidst allegations by some politicians that the ICRC had ordered 35,000 body bags. The ICRC has been importing body bags every year, going through the usual clearance procedures by the Sri Lanka government authorities and use them to handle and transport bodies of fallen fighters, the release said.

A quantity of the body bags are handed over to both parties and some are also given to hospitals in the conflict area, it said. The ICRC also provides body bags to health authorities according to their needs during other emergencies.

"Depending on the state of the body two body bags have to be used sometimes, the news release said quoting Claudia Arndt, Health delegate in the ICRC Vavuniya office

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• TAMIL
• AGAINST
• HOLOCAUST