Rajiva Wijesinha

“ Given the slaughter of the innocents taking place in other theatres of conflict, it is almost heartening that TNA should expend all its rhetoric to prove clearly that, far from targeting civilians, the Sri Lankan forces take more care about civilian lives than any other armed forces engaged in combating terror anywhere on the globe. ”

“ Of course the death of any civilian is to be regretted, and the Sri Lankan government should redouble its efforts to ensure that our fellow citizens are kept safe. But this account of how careful we are also serves to suggest to those who still want to extend a lifeline to the LTTE that the best way they can serve the Tamil people is to urge the LTTE to surrender, to stop using civilians as shields, to let our fellow citizens escape into the bright future that awaits them when freed of the iron control of terror. ”

“ On the 20th, when the Air Force launched several raids on LTTE defences as well as sea tigers whose movements were detected in Kilaly lagoon, TamilNet claimed that the bombers dropped eight bombs on fishing huts and boats. There were no claims of civilian casualties, though TNA now claims that ‘thousands of recently displaced civilians had established temporary shelters’ in the area the Air Force attacked. This grandiose claim had not been made earlier by TamilNet, but TNA obviously felt that they needed to spice up the story. ”