Government Shells Wound 300 In Sri Lanka

At least 300 civilians were wounded and scores feared killed by government artillery shells fired into a designated "safe zone" for ethnic Tamils trapped by fighting between the military and Tamil rebels, a health official alleged Tuesday.

Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara denied that soldiers fired shells into the safe zone, and said they had not targeted civilians during any of the fighting in northern Sri Lanka. He attributed any reported civilian casualties to rebels dressed in civilian clothing, or civilians pressed into service by the insurgents to build fortifications.

But TamilNet, a pro-rebel Web site, says government artillery fire has killed more than 300 civilians in the zone in northern Sri Lanka through Monday.

The health official, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from the government, said that it remained difficult to obtain a full account of the casualty toll in the 13.5-square-mile (35-square-kilometer) safe zone near Mullaittivu.

He said relatives have brought some 300 wounded to Puthukudiyiruppu hospital, some 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Mullaittivu. The official says he believed the government was responsible for the causalities because of the direction from which the fire came.

He said relatives told him they had already buried the dead or abandoned the bodies by roadsides as they fled attacks.

Neither the TamilNet report nor the health official's account could immediately be confirmed. Journalists are barred from the war zone.

Human rights groups and diplomats have expressed concerns about the safety of an estimated 150,000 to 400,000 civilians in the territory remaining under rebel control - an area of about 115 square miles (300 square kilometers). The government says the number is far lower.

The government unilaterally declared the "safe zone" in a small section of the rebel-held territory last week and called on all the civilians to move into that area, where they would be protected. But there have been several reports of artillery fire in that area.

The U.N. resident coordinator Neil Buhne told The Associated Press on Monday that there was a "high intensity of fighting" in that region, including in the safe zone.

"There have been many civilians killed over the last two days. ... It's really a crisis now," he said.

The Tamil Tigers have fought since 1983 to create a separate state for minority Tamils, who have suffered decades of marginalization at the hands of governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the civil war.
By Associated Press Writer Krishan Francis