Sri Lankan revolutionaries attack lone hospital
Shelly Fowler
Issue date: 2/11/09 Section: News
Pudukkudiyiruppu Hospital in Sri Lanka has been closed down after nine shootings in four days.
The hospital was caught in the middle of fierce fighting between government forces and Tamil rebels.
The last functioning hospital in the area was fully evacuated Wednesday morning in the middle of the warfare.
The attack of the hospital has left at least 14 people dead and 10 wounded.
Pudukkudiyiruppu Hospital, in the Vanni region, has been hit once each on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the ICRC's Sarasi Wijeratne in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The heaviest attack on the hospital happened Sunday, when the facility was hit six times with artillery fire.
The fighting has kept aid from reaching the hospital and has chased away doctors and nurses. As a result, many patients there have died.
Government forces and Tamil rebels are locked in a battle for the remaining rebel strongholds in northern Sri Lanka, where the country's ethnic Tamil minority has been fighting for an independent homeland since 1983.
Each side accuses the other of firing on the hospital.
"Our staff has been dug down into bunkers for the past 18 hours under sustained artillery fire, which included cluster munitions this morning," said U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss to CNN International News reporter. "We hold grave fears for the workers safety. It also includes 81 staff members who are dug down in these bunkers."
"It looks as if it's convenient for certain agencies to exaggerate the numbers so that this can be converted to a humanitarian crisis in the public eye," Secretary of Foreign Affairs Dr. Palitha Kohona told CNN earlier this week.
"Humanitarian groups say as many as 250,000 unprotected civilians are trapped in the area where the fighting is taking place."
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has promised to allow safe passage to trapped civilians and urged the Tamil Tigers, as the rebels are commonly known, to promise the same.
The hospital was caught in the middle of fierce fighting between government forces and Tamil rebels.
The last functioning hospital in the area was fully evacuated Wednesday morning in the middle of the warfare.
The attack of the hospital has left at least 14 people dead and 10 wounded.
Pudukkudiyiruppu Hospital, in the Vanni region, has been hit once each on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the ICRC's Sarasi Wijeratne in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The heaviest attack on the hospital happened Sunday, when the facility was hit six times with artillery fire.
The fighting has kept aid from reaching the hospital and has chased away doctors and nurses. As a result, many patients there have died.
Government forces and Tamil rebels are locked in a battle for the remaining rebel strongholds in northern Sri Lanka, where the country's ethnic Tamil minority has been fighting for an independent homeland since 1983.
Each side accuses the other of firing on the hospital.
"Our staff has been dug down into bunkers for the past 18 hours under sustained artillery fire, which included cluster munitions this morning," said U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss to CNN International News reporter. "We hold grave fears for the workers safety. It also includes 81 staff members who are dug down in these bunkers."
"It looks as if it's convenient for certain agencies to exaggerate the numbers so that this can be converted to a humanitarian crisis in the public eye," Secretary of Foreign Affairs Dr. Palitha Kohona told CNN earlier this week.
"Humanitarian groups say as many as 250,000 unprotected civilians are trapped in the area where the fighting is taking place."
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has promised to allow safe passage to trapped civilians and urged the Tamil Tigers, as the rebels are commonly known, to promise the same.
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