P3of4 Matthew of Inner city Press UN Closed Door Diplomacy

Sri Lankan cluster shelling kills 129 civilians within 7 hours
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 March 2009, 10:55 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells fitted with cluster munitions and fire-bombs into civilian 'safety zone' killing at least 129 civilians between 2:30 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday. Around 200 civilians were wounded. 300 tarpaulin huts burned down to ashes in Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) fired rockets. The medical store at Valaignarmadam has sustained damage and the son of a doctor was reported killed there, according to initial reports. A local NGO official, who was coordinating the rescue of the wounded described the carnage as "Colombos show of open mockery at international concern," reports TamilNet's Vanni correspondent. "The attack was criminally deliberate as it was timed for the aftermath of a mini cyclone and floods, at the stranded civilians," the NGO official said.

2ND LEAD
SLA shelling kills 133 civilians including 49 children on Tuesday
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 March 2009, 17:27 GMT]
More than 49 of 133 civilians killed inside 'safe zone' in SLA shelling on Tuesday were children and 16 of them were children below 3 years of age. The SLA deployed internationally banned cluster munitions and fire-bombs against civilians who were stranded without shelter inside the 'safe zone' which has become a killing field, reports TamilNet correspondent from Vanni. 273 civilians, including a GS (village officer) and an ICRC worker, were wounded on Tuesday. 47 of the civilians succumbed to their injuries on the way to hospital or after their admittance.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Jaffna
• Tamil
• protest
• LTTE
• Vanni
• Terrerist
• Rebel
• TamilTigers
• Tigers
• Genocide
• Colombo
• India
• TamilNadu
• London
• Toronto