Sinhala doctors transferred from Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 December 1999, 09:55 GMT]
Sinhala doctors who were working at the Jaffna teaching hospital were evacuated yesterday. They reached Colombo by plane on special arrangements by the Ministries of Defence and Health.

A spokesman for the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) said they had requested the relevant authorities to provide security to the doctors in the war zone, and no arrangements were made. "We were forced to call back the doctors," he said.

He further said that the Association decided to call back 40 doctors working in the war zone in Jaffna and has requested the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Health and the ICRC to bring them back to Colombo.

ICRC sources said that they had nothing to do with yesterday's transport of Jaffna doctors to Colombo, and they were only involved in transporting seriously ill patients from Jaffna to Colombo by their ship.