With the LTTE and tens of thousands of civilians penned into an area of around 17 square km, the plight of civilians in the northern area of Sri Lanka known as the Vanni has attracted worldwide concern and sympathy, and it could not have been any other way. While the circumstances are completely different, the civilian death toll in the Vanni over the past few months is already at least triple the number of civilians killed in the Gaza massacre of December-January, and still mounting. Meanwhile, the thousands who suffer serious injuries are further victimised by the delay in medical attention or its outright lack; this means, for instance, that injuries to limbs that could have been saved with prompt treatment are instead resulting in gangrene and amputations. Even those who have not lost lives, limbs or loved ones have lost their homes and livelihoods, and live in appalling conditions that could well claim more lives through disease or even starvation. All the while, the LTTE and government of Sri Lanka trade charges, each accusing the other of responsibility for the slaughter. What truth is there in their respective allegations?
Let us start with the LTTE, whose leaders and supporters, especially in Tamil Nadu but also elsewhere, cry Genocide! and accuse the Colombo government of being solely responsible for the carnage. They do not mention the appalling war crimes committed by the rebels, which have been documented by international and Sri Lankan human-rights groups. The most obvious is their use of Tamil civilians as human shields, from behind which they can engage in offensive firing, even shooting those who try to escape. The civilians whom the LTTE claims to represent are effectively being held prisoner or hostage, and deliberately kept in the line of fire to provide cover. The relationship between Tamil civilians and the Tigers is the very opposite of what the latter claims: far from defending the Tamils, the LTTE leaders are using the civilians for their physical and political survival, a violation that is specifically defined as a war crime.
But the LTTE is also doing worse. All official reports on the situation mention continued forcible conscription of civilians, including children. This too is a war crime. Unofficial reports say that these youngsters are no longer being provided with cyanide capsules, due to the fact that some had earlier used these to commit suicide rather than go into combat. It must be kept in mind that large numbers of LTTE casualties actually consist of these frightened and ill-trained young conscripts, who never chose to bear arms. Their presence in the Tigers' forces also means that their families, who might otherwise flee, remain in rebel-held territory, not wanting to abandon their children. Planting a suicide bomber among fleeing civilians was a cynical move, ensuring that all civilians would thenceforth be regarded as suspects.
Most chilling of all, refugees who have escaped report that the LTTE has deliberately fired from areas in which civilians had taken shelter – for instance, from the vicinity of hospitals and schools – knowing that government forces would respond by shelling. The fighters would then scatter, leaving the civilians as victims to the fire. As a strategy, this is even worse than using civilians as shields: this constitutes using civilian lives as propaganda tools, deliberately getting them killed in order to justify the allegation of genocide. The LTTE massacres of Sinhalese civilians in Inginiyagala, on 21 February, and Buttala, on 13 April, were probably also attempts to provoke violent reprisals against Tamil civilians. In addition, the 10 March suicide attack on Muslims celebrating the Milad festival at the Jumma Mosque in Akuressa recalled the LTTE's massacres and ethnic cleansing of Muslims in the past. Those who hurl charges of genocide and war crimes against the Colombo government alone are guilty of whitewashing the LTTE, and are complicit in covering up the rebels' heinous war crimes during the most recent phase of fighting.