Teach the world to conduct humanitarian wars

by Gomin DAYASRI

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Celebrated journalist Jo Wilding in his account ‘Eye Witness in Falluja’

(Tell me No Lies-edited by John Pilger) “Snipers are causing not just carnage but also the paralysis of the ambulance and evacuation services. The biggest hospital after the main one was bombed, is in US territory and cut off from the clinic by snipers.”

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With the security forces at the entrance to Kilinochchi, the foreign legion unhappy with the military success they failed to achieve in their military exercises in Iraq and Afghanistan, have commenced to preach humanitarian values which they never exercised in their military operations. It is ironical to hear some international organisations, foreign officials and diplomats spout on human rights in Sri Lanka displaying their abbreviated memory of events of November 2004 in Falluja, Iraq where the occupying US Forces launched their second major attack on the city of Falluja.

It had all the ingredients required to bring the US military on charges against the War Crimes Act of USA on allegations of human rights violations.

Where were these eminent persons? Were their distance voices heard?

The attack on Falluja started with eliminating the power supply and pounding the city with 500 lb bombs. The US marines targeted ambulances and randomly shot civilians, US Marines closed the main hospital in order to use it as a military position. Marines blocked the road leading to the two main hospitals. In Operation Phantom Fury of Falluja, US military command tried to justify the attack on the hospital describing it as a haven for the insurgents but as expressed by Guardian Weekly of Nov 12-18, 2004* this was a centre from which high death tolls of patients were accounted, much to military frustration. [We are providing the hospitals at Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu which treats the terrorists’ medical facilities and pays staff and medical expenses]

The bombing campaign was directed to empty the city but not the male population between ages 15 to 45; they were not permitted to flee Falluja to ensure the bombing reached the required target. It was the reverse of the Srebrenica massacre where the Serbs trucked out women and children holding the men captive. In Falluja babies and pregnant mothers unable to leave were killed because the attackers who ordered their flight thereupon cordoned off the city, closing the exit roads. [Can these human rights angels in the Wanni operations refer to any such calculated atrocities targeting a selective civil population where men of fighting age are exclusively identified for elimination and no safe passage is left for the infants and invalids to leave. We have an open corridor for safe passage and humanitarian assistance on crossing which are prevented by the LTTE with no limitations]

Celebrated journalist Jo Wilding in his account ‘Eye Witness in Falluja’ (Tell me No Lies-edited by John Pilger) “Snipers are causing not just carnage but also the paralysis of the ambulance and evacuation services. The biggest hospital after the main one was bombed, is in US territory and cut off from the clinic by snipers.”

The US Army began its ground attack with the infantry conquering the Falluja General Hospital. The front page of the New York Times (8. Nov 2004) reported “patients and hospital employees were rushed out of hospital rooms by armed soldiers and ordered to sit or lie on the floor while troops tied their hands behind their backs”. A supporting photograph was also published and presented as a gallant accomplishment. [Is not our Press more objective and less jingoistic?]

It was confirmed by BBC and Reuters in a report by Dr. Sami al-Jumaili of US war planes bombing the Central Health Care Centre in Falluja killing 35 patients and 24 staff members. Dr. Eiman al Ani of the Falluja General Hospital stated the entire Health Centre shortly after the attack collapsed on the patients. It is no surprise as the US air planes shelled the Chinese embassy in Belgrade and a moving passenger train during NATO bombing of Serbia in planes equipped with precision bombing devices. [NATO pilots have much to learn on accurate targeting from the Sri Lanka Air Force with less sophisticated leaser instruments. The core issue is- we are concerned of our Tamil citizens in the North and are treated like fellow citizens unlike the US Forces who treated the Iraqi civilians as alien Islamic terrorists]

The US military denied access to the Iraqi Red Crescent to Falluja which amounts to a gross violation of international humanitarian law. Sir Nigel Young CEO of British Red Cross condemned it as a dangerous precedent.

Doctors reported that the entire medical staff had been locked in the main hospital and tied up when the US attack began under military orders. Red Cross issued a statement blaming all combatants of “utter contempt of humanity” Guardian 15 December 2004. [ICRC operated freely in the Wanni region including transferring the dead of all combats]

In Dining with Terrorist Phil Rees at page 372 describes “a photographer working for Associated Press saw American helicopters cutting down a family of five as they tried to flee .......A US marine was filmed in a mosque in Falluja shooting an unarmed wounded man in the head while he lay on the ground.”

The ruined city of 250000 in Falluja was devoid of electricity, running water and schools. [ Sri Lanka provided all these facilities to areas under LTTE domination without levying any taxes. Till the LTTE forcibly dislocated the population in Kilinochchi these facilities were available to the Northern public.] John K Cooley in Alliance against Babylon page 219 states homes were bull dozed and tanks punched holes in buildings without totally collapsing them.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Right to Food Jean Zieglar accused US and UK troops in Iraq of “breaching international law by depriving civilians of food water in besieged cities as they seek to flush out the militants”. He also alleged that US forces “cut off or restricted food and water to encourage residents to flee before the assault”. He further stated” using hunger and deprivation of water as a weapon of war against the civilian population (in) flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions” Reuters 15 October 2005; also Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe and London Independent 15.Oct 2005. [UN officials are permitted to accompany supplies vehicles to Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu and before LTTE deserted Kilinochchi UN and other NGOs maintained established bases in Kilinochchi. The Forces gave them adequate notice until 29th September to leave as a security concern yet permit them to operate from safe sanctuaries]

The leading medical journal of UK Lancet in October 2004 reported the death toll associated with the invasion and occupation of Iraq may be higher than 100,000.World Food Program reported “significant countrywide shortages of rice, milk and infant formulas”.

Acute malnutrition doubled within 16 months of the occupation of Iraq to the level of Burundi, well above Haiti and Uganda, a figure that translates to approximately 4000000 Iraqi children suffering from ‘wasting’, a condition characterized by chronic diarrhea and dangerous deficiencies of proteins. [We are ensuring a flow of the essentials notwithstanding attempts by the LTTE to disrupt humanitarian operations]

Shiite and Kurdish militias often operating as part of the Iraq government security forces carried out abductions and assassinations. More than a million since US occupation have sought refuge in Syria and Jordan mostly professionals and secular moderates. (Chomsky Failed State)

Boucher’s master George Bush told his troops “I know what you are doing in Iraq is right”. Jo Wildings in Eye Witness in Falluja responded “Well George. I too know now. I know what it looks like when an operation is being done without anesthetic because hospitals are destroyed or under sniper fire and the city’s under siege and aid isn’t getting in properly. I know what it sounds like too. I know what it looks like when tracer bullets are passing your head, even though you are in an ambulance”.

Falluja is just another fang in a venomous elongated trail that runs in living memory across borders of Vietnam, Laos, Guatemala, Chile, Nicaragua, Grenada, Panama, Columbia, Haiti, Afghanistan and Pakistan relating back to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

After a 30 year war in an economically backward society our human rights record stands distinctly superior to the United States in military matters; welfare measures are provided for the people in the uncleared areas though our economy is not healthy.

These western observers who carry the self proclaimed tag ‘international community’ (though in fact they represent just a few countries) must practice what they preach and if they desire to learn the art of safeguarding human rights while facing the deadliest of terrorists they should follow the Wanni battle for their edification and education of a humanitarian exercise. In war, breaches of humanitarian restrains are inevitable but in the present exercise in Sri Lanka the preservation of human rights is high on the agenda than in the wars US are engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan. Should they not tell it to the Marines!