The article below is an abridged statement released by War Without Witness on a new report prepared by WWW on innocent Tamil civilians killed by the Sri Lankan Army's military offensive between January 1 and March 23. To read the report, visit http://www.warwithoutwitness.com.
The objective of this report is to document the perilous situation of civilians due to the Sri Lankan government's indiscriminate bombardment on the civilian settlements and so-called safety zones in the northern part of Sri Lanka.
War Without Witness tried to gather as much as first hand verified information in this report and it fears that the situation may be far worse than what we realise, due to lack of communication, the threat posed to journalists and human rights activists and the facilities that exist on the ground.
Since the Sri Lankan government has banned access for all the independent monitors and humanitarian workers, the combat zone is being isolated from the outside world and a war is waged by the Sri Lankan government without witness.
The Sri Lankan government established so-called safe zones in Vanni for the civilians to move in for their security. The so-called safe zone has subsequently been subjected to a military bombardment leading to civilian casualties.
Photographic and video evidences of the indiscriminate bombardment on the safe zone by the Sri Lankan Army are documented by WWW (see the website).
The WWW estimate based on first-hand information obtained from government-run hospital authorities, police and judiciary sources in Vanni, the North East Secretariat of Human Rights, aid workers and credible media outlets confirms more than 3546 innocent Tamils have been killed and more than 8370 injured by SLA since January 1.
WWW will continue to update this report with fresh evidence.