Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Vavuniyaa, inhumanely separated 122 immediate family members accompanying the seriously wounded 226 civilians transported by the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), and sent them to an internment camp in Nelukku’lam, Vavuniyaa, medical sources in Vavuniyaa told TamilNet. Mothers of number of injured children, between ages 8 and 10 years, were also not allowed to remain with their children, and were transferred to the internment camp.
When the Vanni district Tamil National Alliance MP Shivashakthi Anandan visited the hospital to see the newly arrived injured patients, he witnessed the pathetic plight of the children who were injured and admitted on Thursday, mentally traumatized staying alone in the hospital without their mothers.
Patients requiring additional help struggled to manage alone in the Vavuniyaa hospital.
Shivashakthi Anandan brought the matter to the attention of high ranking government authorities and urged them to at least allow the mothers to be with their children. The request was turned down by the military officials, according to the MP.
The patients discharged from the hospital are also being dispatched to the Nelukku’lam internment centre, according to civil society sources.
Civilians arriving in Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) controlled areas are not being allowed to move freely or to stay with their relatives in Vavuniyaa, in gross violation of fundamental rights, NGO sources in Vavuniyaa said.
The victims are held in an open prison without any communication with outside world, NGO sources added.
The victims are also misused by the ’embedded media persons’ of the Sri Lanka Army to disseminate false propaganda recordings to Sinhala television stations, civil society sources said.
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