Crisis hits Sri Lanka war hospital in Vanni:

Crisis hits Sri Lanka war hospital
The UNHCR says up to 180,000 are trapped in the war zone in Sri Lanka's northeast [Al Jazeera]

All surgeries have stopped at a makeshift hospital in Sri Lanka's war zone due to a lack of basic supplies such as
anesthetic and blood bags, according to a government health official.

Dr Thurairaja Varatharajah said on Sunday that four civilians died in the hospital the previous day from injuries, while 48 others were awaiting treatment.

He said he had sent a report to the government pleading for supplies.

"We don't have bandages or gauze, we tear up bed sheets to bind the wounds and use palm sticks to support fractures. We are in need of a quick supply," Varatharajah said.

The report could not be independently verified.

Varatharajah's claim after a statement on Friday by Navanethem Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, that she believed 2,800 people had died since January and that a further 150,000 to 180,000 were trapped in the war zone.

But the government disputed the number, saying it came from fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), whom it accuses of using civilians as human shields.

Mahinda Samarasinghe, human rights minister, said: "If the high commissioner for human rights is concerned about these civilians, then the high commissioner must call on the LTTE to let them go''.

The LTTE responded in a statement that it called on the UN to investigate the military's treatment of civilians.

The statement did not comment on charges made by Pillay that the rebels may have committed war crimes.

Shrinking base

The government has rejected calls for a ceasefire in its effort to capture the shrinking LTTE territory that would put an end to Sri Lanka's 25-year civil war.

LTTE fighters are estimated to have been forced to retreat to a 35sq km area in the northeast by the Sri Lankan military.

Government forces are fighting for control of the last LTTE-held town of Puthukkudiyiruppu, about 280km northeast of the capital of Colombo.

Sri Lanka's military has said there is a chance that V Prabhakaran, the LTTE chief, is still in the war zone and has not fled the country.

"There is a possibility Prabhakaran is still there," Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, the military spokesman, said. "They are putting up tough resistance and that may be because he is still there."

He said fighting around Puthukkudiyiruppu was continuing, and it was not possible to say how long it would take for the government to capture the town.

The LTTE has been fighting since 1983 for an independent state for the Tamil minority in the Sinhalese dominated majority.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting.
Source: Agencies
Surgeries stop at Sri Lanka's war zone hospital

By SCOTT McDONALD, Associated Press Writer Scott Mcdonald, Associated Press Writer – Sun Mar 15, 8:31 am ET
Sri Lanka troops capture Tiger 'court' AFP/File – Children at a shelter for war-displaced Tamils in Vavuniya in February. Sri Lankan troops pushed deeper …

* Sri Lanka Unrest Slideshow:Sri Lanka Unrest

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – All surgeries have stopped at a makeshift hospital in Sri Lanka's war zone because of a lack of basic supplies such as anesthetic and blood bags, the top government health official there said Sunday.

Dr. Thurairaja Varatharajah said the situation was so bad that bed sheets were being used for bandages, while sticks were being used to brace fractured limbs.

"We don't have bandages or gauze, we tear up bed sheets to bind the wounds and use palm sticks to support fractures. We are in need of a quick supply," Varatharajah said.

Four civilians died in the hospital Saturday from injuries, while 48 others were awaiting treatment, he said.

Varatharajah said he sent a report to the government pleading for supplies.

The fate of tens of thousands of civilians caught in the war zone has become a matter of international concern. The U.N. high commissioner for human rights said Friday that she believed 2,800 have died since Jan. 20, a number the government says is unsubstantiated and based on figures given by the Tamil rebels.

The government says the rebels, who are fighting for a separate state in the north and east of the island, are using the civilians as human shields in a desperate attempt to avoid defeat.

The rebels could not be reached for comment, and it was not possible to verify the reports independently because reporters are barred from the coastal war zone.

U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay warned Friday that civilian casualties could reach "catastrophic" proportions if the two sides do not suspend fighting. She said 150,000 to 180,000 people remain trapped in the rebel area — estimated at 13.5 square miles (35 square kilometers) — on Sri Lanka's northeast coast.

But the government has rejected the calls for a cease-fire in its drive to capture the shrinking rebel enclave and end the island's 25-year-old civil war.

Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said Pillay's report failed to tell the rebels to let civilians in the area leave.

"If the high commissioner for human rights is concerned about these civilians, then the high commissioner must call on the LTTE to let them go," he told reporters Saturday.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam countered Sunday with a statement that called on the United Nations to investigate the military's treatment of civilians. The statement, posted on the pro-rebel Web site TamilNet, did not comment on charges by Pillay that the rebels may have committed war crimes.

The government has said repeatedly that it does not target civilians.

The rebels have fought since 1983 for an independent state for the Tamil minority, which suffered decades of marginalization at the hands of governments dominated by the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting.

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On the Net: http://www.TamilNet.com

According to TULF leader Anandasangaree, he has admitted that 330,000 Tamils are stuck in Vanni and not 70,000 as the government has always claimed.