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30,000 Sri Lankan civilians maimed in battle
The Australian - May 25, 2009
Amanda Hodge, South Asia correspondent – Up to 30,000 civilians trapped in the last days of Sri Lanka's civil war have been left seriously disabled with lost limbs or paralysis, The Australian has learned.
Sri Lanka's Government insists no civilian casualties were sustained in the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, but French-based aid organisation Handicap International said yesterday that it was preparing a "huge" number of prosthetic limbs for traumatised survivors.
HI Sri Lanka chief Satish Mishra said the group had delivered more than 1000 sets of crutches, wheelchairs and other devices to civilians in refugee camps in the country's north and east.
"The consignment is huge," Mr Mishra said. "In total, around 9 per cent of people within the IDP camps will require prosthetic or orthetic support such as calipers. It's an extraordinary figure. If there were 250,000 to 300,000 people there (in the conflict zone) then we're talking about 25,000 to 30,000 people who require these."
The UN estimates that at least 7000 civilians died in the final stages of fighting in the country's northern battlezone – an area closed to all but the military, a few aid workers and a mass of civilians caught between the warring sides. But the huge toll on those caught in the crossfire during final battle is only now beginning to emerge.
Figures obtained by The Australian for just one field hospital in Pulmoddai, north of Trincomalee, show 10,191 patients were evacuated between March 16 and May 9 – one week before the Government's final offensive. Of those, 3118 were treated for serious injuries, including bullet and schrapnel wounds, broken bones and amputations.
Aid workers inside the refugee camps, in which up to 300,000 people are being forcibly detained while the Government weeds out LTTE sympathisers, have described scenes of carnage and misery.
Health officials and hospital workers told of "people without legs, people without hands, with their abdomens open. People are crying, worrying about their children, husbands, families."
One veteran aid worker said he was shocked by the wounds and devastated families. "Handicap International was there (in the camps) unloading crutches after crutches after crutches and wheelchairs after wheelchairs. I was watching it thinking, 'My God, what has happened here'.
"These are some of the worst camps I have been to in nearly 20 countries I have worked in. There's a huge number of people waiting for prosthetic limbs."
Among them is a husband and wife who left their eight-month-old baby in a bunker to find food during a lull in fighting. "The baby hadn't eaten in three days but as soon as they left the bunker, the SLA (Sri Lankan army) started shelling again," the aid worker said. "He lost his leg and his wife lost both of hers."
Such stories must be told anonymously through those few allowed access to survivors. Access to the north of the country, all camps and even hospitals requires permission from the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who toured the main refugee camp, Manik Farm, at the weekend, called for aid groups to be granted "unhindered access".
But the Government yesterday ruled out complete access for aidworkers until rebels hiding among the refugees had been weeded out.
[Additional reporting: Alexandra Cameron in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka.]
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