'Sinhala regime transforming holy land into battlefield': Political
Head
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 unlea****ng its army on an area that was ought to be free of
war according to war ethics and UN conventions.
LTTE's Political Head B. Nadesan
Statement by LTTE's Political Head
"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 unlea****ng 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 wor****p,
but tosses away the peace and holiness related to other people and
instead prioritizes only its military interests."
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