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BBC - What they do not wish to see
These are deliberate campaigns to extend the suffering of the civilian hostages while throwing a life line to an internationally banned terrorist outfit and its notorious leaders who are most wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity, said a defence official referring to a BBC news report, Sunday (May 10), carrying a pro-LTTE propaganda piece claiming the "death of 378 people" and "1,122 civilian casualties".
The BBC Sinhala news report citing unofficial and unverified medical sources as coming from the civilian safe zone said that at least 378 people were killed and 1,122 others injured, also claiming fierce artillery shelling from the Sri Lankan security forces. The Sri Lankan military has vehemently condemned the untruthful allegations as the latest propaganda ploy by LTTE to discredit the SL government at the informal session of the UN Security Council on Monday (May 11). Such attempts are not new in the Sri Lankan context as the LTTE has continued time and again in similar relentless campaigns in the jaws of defeat, the official said.
The Sri Lankan security forces are engaging terrorists and legitimate identified LTTE targets that are solely aimed at liberating an estimated of 30,000 civilian hostages held at gunpoint by the terrorists. Questioning the accuracy and the reality of the news report, the observer further said that it is the security forces who are acting with utmost restraint avoiding any form of collateral damage inside the civilian safe zone, despite provocative and indiscriminate LTTE artillery shelling and mortar attacks. "We have released plenty of aerial footage taken by the UAVs which provide substantial evidence on the form of crimes the outfit is perpetrating at liberty inside the CSZ. The footage also includes the LTTE's use of heavy artillery pieces, armour tanks and vehicle mounted gun attacks at both civilian and the advancing military. And what's disturbing is that the lack of objectivity and neutrality by these so-called "independent media" to use such allegedly hard evidence, the official further said. Repetition is the best form of overwriting the truth, and that is exactly what the BBC is continuing with least effort to be objective", defence sources say.
Such practices are deliberate attempts to misguide the public while creating clouds of misinformation to isolate a government that has single handedly carried out a campaign to free its own civilians held hostage by an internationally proscribed terrorist outfit. "I do not see any wrongdoing by the SL government and the security forces, who if they wanted to could have taken an all out assault at the LTTE now encircled in a swathe of the CSZ and written the end game of the LTTE within hours. Why do not they (BBC) see the genuineness of the military effort, to contain civilian casualties? The government while fighting to rid the country from a ruthless terrorist outfit is also engaged in a large scale humanitarian campaign to uplift and improve the living standards of thousands who were held as human shield by the LTTE, until freed by the security forces at Puthumathalan", the official said.
This whole report is aimed at blowing the prevailing ground situation out of proportion while sanitizing a ruthless terrorist outfit's use of civilians as human shield, the official further said.
The BBC's Colombo based correspondent Charles Havilland in his report, citing unverified sources said, "a steady stream of information coming from the area suggests that civilians are being killed..... Health officials are convinced that the shells are coming from territory held by the SL Army". He further quotes an illusive MO named Dr. V. Shanmugarajah at the CSZ, and probably if he exists a definite hostage who has no alternative other than to parrot LTTE statements. Indeed there is a humanitarian catastrophe, one that is caused by the LTTE alone and this needs to be condemned in all corners and not glorified, a defence official said.
Surprisingly, the BBC correspondent has not made any effort to ascertain the very existence of such a MO under the name of V. Shanmugarajah, from the Ministry of Health. Meanwhile, a Health Ministry official when contacted denied the existence of any MO named V. Shanmugarajah in the particular area, and claimed that this is deliberately attempted to mislead the international community while glorifying the heinous crimes perpetrated by LTTE against both civilians and run-away LTTE cadres.
Also, confirming the health ministry official's statement, an official at the Provincial Director Health Office (Northern Province) said that there is no reliable information of the very existence of the quoted doctor. It is hardly likely that the LTTE would allow any individual or official to make independent comments without towing its line of terror and this is no exception.
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