The Hindu : Front Page : Red Cross rescues 226 sick and wounded people

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Friday, Jan 30, 2009
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Front Page

Front Page

Red Cross rescues 226 sick and wounded people

B. Muralidhar Reddy

COLOMBO: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Thursday succeeded in transporting 226 sick and wounded patients from the LTTE territory to the Vavuniya hospital, amid claims by the military that it recovered from Mullaithivu district four “underwater vehicles” developed by the Tigers and a 152 mm artillery gun.

The 226 patients were among the 300 sick civilians held hostage at gunpoint by the LTTE for the last three days. The Tigers had refused permission to the ICRC and the U.N. to transport the patients to the Vavuniya hospital.

The Tigers relented after the U.N. and ICRC condemned the attitude of the LTTE and the issue was prominently highlighted by the national and international media. In an interview to the pro-LTTE TamilNet, the Tigers “Political Head,” A. Nadesan denied that they forcibly kept the patients.

He claimed that a U.N. “security officer,” who accompanied a WFP humanitarian convoy, attempted to pressure the Tigers on “completely wrong moral grounds,” to organise an “exodus of the family members of the local staff of the U.N.,” leaving behind the remaining civilians in the “safety zone” to be subjected to a “genocidal attack” by the Sri Lanka military.

The military said troops found an LTTE “underwater vehicle” along with three other smaller ones, which were still under construction in the Udayarkattukulam area in Mullaithivu.

The Defence Ministry said that with this discovery, the LTTE will go down in history as the first terrorist organisation to develop underwater weapons. “Also, the LTTE is the first terrorist outfit to introduce suicide bombers to the world and to develop naval and air arms.

Defence observers feel the LTTE was able to come this far in terrorism warfare because of the “leeway given to the outfit by the international community.”

The military said troops also captured a 152 mm artillery gun along with 70 empty ammunition cases in a general area northeast of Visuamadu. “LTTE cadres, after receiving a heavy beating from security forces, have fled in total disarray, leaving the artillery gun....”

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