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Lankan war zone hospital hit again

50 killed; UN doubts govt's no shelling claim

AP, Colombo
Shells hit the only hospital in Sri Lanka’s northern war zone yesterday, killing at least 50 people in the second such attack in two days, a doctor said, as a human rights group accused the government of breaking its pledge not to fire artillery into the tiny coastal strip.
The military has denied firing any heavy weapons in recent weeks as it pushed to finish off the Tamil Tiger rebels, but Human Rights Watch says both sides are using the estimated 50,000 civilians packed into the last rebel-held territory as "cannon fodder."
Military spokesman Brig Udaya Nanayakkara denied troops were responsible for any shelling. He said the war zone had grown too small for the use of such weapons and rebel booby traps might be exploding by accident.
The UN has cast doubt on the government's claim.
"The government have said they are not using heavy weapons, but the evidence suggests that they are continuing to do so, at least to some extent," UN humanitarian chief John
Holmes said.
Meanwhile, the Red Cross said one of its workers was killed in the shelling yesterday.
The Tamil Tigers are cornered in a five square-kilometre pocket of land. The military said it pressed ahead with its offensive into that strip, capturing one of the rebels' heavy guns and fending off a suicide attack launched by the group's naval wing.
Also yesterday afternoon, the area around the hospital came under heavy shell attack. Dr V Shanmugarajah told The Associated Press by telephone the third time it has come under fire this month and just one day after the last attack. One shell landed in an administrative office of the hospital, while another hit a ward filled with patients already wounded by previous shelling, he said.
Dr Thurairaja Varatharajah, the top health official in the war zone, said the attack killed at least 50 people, including patients, relatives and a health aide, and wounded about 60 others.
He said heavy shelling continued throughout the day.
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"We are unable to treat the people properly because a lot of aides have fled the hospital. We go into bunkers when there is shelling and try to treat them as much as we can when there is a lull, " he said by telephone.
More than 1,000 civilians many with amputations or chest wounds were waiting for treatment at the hospital when it was struck, and every 10 minutes or so another one or two died, according to a third hospital official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized by the government to speak to the media.
Overwhelmed doctors have been reduced to handing out gauze and bandages to the seriously wounded, the official said. More than lOOdead bodies have been left inside the compound because no one will risk burying them amid the constant shelling, he said.
The hospital's admissions ward was hit by a mortar round Tbesday, in an attack that killed 49 patients and bystanders, health officials said.
Rebel spokesman Seevaratnam Puleedevan said shells also hit a home for mentally handicapped women, killing 38 and wounding more than 40. The health officials said they were not able to confirm that attack
Shelling also killed Red Cross worker Mayuran Sivagurunathan and his mother and prevented a Red Cross ferry off the coast from delivering food aid and evacuating the wounded, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The aid group said it was not sure if its employee was killed in the hospital attack
"There are many shells falling. I don't know if it was the same attack," Red Cross spokesman Marcel Izard said.
Shelling in the area also killed Red Cross worker Mayuran Sivagurunathan, according to Sarasi Wijeratne, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross. It also prevented a Red Cross ferry off the coast from delivering food aid and
evacuating the wounded, she said.
Reports of the fighting are difficult to verify because the government has oarretHoumal ists and aid workers from the warzone.
The government has come under heavy International criticism for the large civilian toll of its offensive against the Tamil Tiger rebels. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called the conflict zone "as close to hell as you can get,” and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton joined him in expressing alarm at the civilian casualties.
Human Rights Watch said witness testimony and satellite images of the area taken Sunday and analyzed by experts "contradict Sri Lankan government claims that its armed forces are no longer using heavy weapons" in the war zone.
The group also accused the rebels of usine the civilians as human shields and shooting those who try to escape.
"Neither the Sri Lankan army nor the Tamil Tigers appear to have any reluctance in using civilians as cannon fodder," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science analyzed satellite photos of the area taken Sunday morning after a night of heavy shelling was reported in the area and compared it to an image taken four days before. The report was done at the request of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.