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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dangreen" data-source="post: 894373" data-attributes="member: 43205">and here it starts<a href="http://uk.reuters.com/news/pictures/articleslideshow?articleId=UKCOL18547720071024&start=1" target="_blank">http://uk.reuters.com/news/pictures/articleslideshow?articleId=UKCOL18547720071024&start=1</a><a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKCOL18547720071024?pageNumber=2" target="_blank">http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKCOL18547720071024?pageNumber=2</a>By Simon GardnerCOLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers on Wednesday accused themilitary of abusing conventions on the treatment of war dead but themilitary denied it had behaved wrongly and said photos showing nakedbodies had been doctored.The Defence Ministry on Tuesday posted pictures on its Web site ofclothed rebels slain in the Tigers' biggest ever suicide operationsprawled on tarmac, some charred, one with eyes wide-open and one witha gaping hole in his head.Witnesses said that after the photos were taken some of the dead werestripped, however, and their naked bodies piled into the back of atractor trailer to be driven to a mortuary in the northern district ofAnuradhapura.Several journalists saw the bodies on the way to the mortuary afterhearing rumours, and the photographs were widely circulated on Websites on Tuesday and published in one local newspaper on Wednesday.The military denied any of the bodies were naked, and said thepictures had been doctored."Somebody has taken (those photographs) to tarnish the image of the(armed forces)," military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara saidon Wednesday, without specifying who. "We are professional soldiers.We do not want to do (things) like that."I can assure you we wrapped all those bodies in black polythenebags ... and sent it to the hospital," he added. "Some photographerwho is interested in tarnishing the image of the army has done thispurposely.""It's not a real photo. It's a made up one."The Tigers sent out a statement on Wednesday condemning the incidentas a violation of the Geneva Convention."They have broken not only the Geneva Convention, but also normsobserved by decent militaries all over the world," Tiger militaryspokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan said by telephone from the northernrebel stronghold of Kilinochchi.The rebels say 21 Tiger suicide fighters were killed in Monday's pre-dawn assault.Fourteen military personnel were killed, and the government said onWednesday eight aircraft, including helicopters, a spy plane andtraining aircraft were destroyed -- far more damage than the militaryinitially reported.Witnesses said the tractor trailers, used normally to collect garbage,were accompanied by military personnel and stopped for several minutesat a junction where a crowd of dozens of people had gathered in therain as word of the trip to the mortuary got around.The hospital mortuary, where the bodies were being taken, was just 100metres away. There was no traffic."The bodies were taken from the camp to the mortuary. One tractortrailer contained naked bodies, bodies in the other were in plasticbags," said a journalist known to Reuters who was at the scene andasked to remain unnamed for fear of retribution."I came to a spot along the route where people had congregated to waitfor the bodies, and the tractors then came and stopped so the crowdcould look," the journalist added.Another journalist witness said: "There were some civilians and otherjournalists about 500 metres from the mortuary. Two tractors came, onewith naked bodies and (the) other with black plastic bags. I presumethose are the blown up bodies of suicide cadres."Monday's attack in the north, where renewed civil war is nowconcentrated after troops captured swathes of Tiger territory in theeast of the island, comes after a series of clashes that have killedaround 5,000 people since early 2006.Nearly 70,000 people have been killed since the war began in 1983, andwhile the military has had the upper hand in recent months, analystssee no clear winner on the horizon and say the conflict could rumbleon for years.</blockquote>

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