'Sinhala regime transforming holy land into battlefield': LTTE Political Head

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 April 2008, 19:59 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Head B Nadesan in a statement issued Thursday from Ki'linochchi strongly condemned the indiscriminate shelling on the Madu Church and urged the International Community and Human Rights organizations to condemn the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) for 'barbarically' transforming a sacred shrine that offered refuge to displaced people into a battlefield. He criticized GoSL for unleashing its army on an area that was ought to be free of war according to war ethics and UN conventions.

"Sinhalese armed forces are indiscriminately shelling the vicinity of the Madu Shrine and thus turning a shrine sacred to the Catholics into a battlefield. The Liberation Tigers vehemently condemn the Sri Lankan Government for giving a free reign to its army and unleashing it in an area that should be free of hostilities according to warfare ethics and UN conventions."

The Tiger Political Head termed as "barbaric" the Sinhalese government's act of making a war zone out of the Madu Shrine that provided refuge to thousands of internally displaced people. He recalled that in 1998, "invading Sinhalese troops had fired from armoured tanks laying siege to the Madu Shrine and killed more than 30 people, including children, women and the aged, who had sought refuge there." Likewise, on February 29, 2008, Sri Lanka Army's claymore attack on schoolchildren travelling across the premises of the sacred Madu Shrine left 18 people, schoolchildren and civilians, dead. "The Sinhalese armed forces that cause danger to the people has imposed yet another atrocity on them. Once again, the GoSL is striving to transform the sacred area of the Madu Shrine into a war zone."

The Liberation Tigers called upon the International Community and Human Rights organizations to come forward to condemn the Sri Lankan government, which "concerns itself about the mental peace of the Buddhist people and the sancticity of the Buddhist places of worship, but tosses away the peace and holiness related to other people and instead prioritizes only its military interests."

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