Sri Lankan doctors placed on trial
Updated
A group of doctors who spoke out about civilian casualties in northern Sri Lanka is expected to be placed on trial.
The three doctors gave detailed reports on shelling in civilian areas during the last days of the conflict between government forces and the Tamil Tiger rebels. The Sri Lankan government has accused the medical professionals of colluding with the rebels. But, human rights groups are demanding their release.
Presenter: Sally Sara
Speakers: Mahinda Samarasinghe, Sri Lanka's Human Rights Minister; Susannah Sirkin, Deputy Director of Physicians for Human Rights
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SARA: They were among the few voices from the frontline during the last days of the war in northern Sri Lanka. The three doctors were treating patients inside the no-fire zone and gave graphic accounts of shelling.
No journalists were allowed in the area. So, the doctor's accounts provided much needed information about civilian casualties. The three men were detained by security forces on May the 16th and are now being held in the capital Colombo.
Sri Lanka's Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe says the medicos were making false accusations about government forces shelling civilians.
Samarasinghe: We know there was no shelling on the part of the government forces, because we had gone on record at the highest level to say that we would not resort to shelling.
SARA: Mr Samarasinghe has accused the doctors of colluding with the Tamil Tigers.
Samarasinghe: These doctors were inside the no fire zone, which was totally under the control of the LTTE and we believe the doctors were used or maybe they were part of that whole conspiracy.
SARA: The doctors could be held in detention for up to a year. Under Sri Lanka's emergency laws, they must be produced in court once a month. The situation has drawn and angry response from human rights groups. Deputy Director of Physicians for Human Rights, Susannah Sirkin says the government must release the men.
SIRKIN: This is really an appaling effort to suppress information in a conflict and also basically to deny mediacal doctors the ethical duty they have as professionals to prevent and limit the suffering of patients in their care.
SARA: Physicians for human rights has praised the courage of the three Sri Lankans and says they were only doing their jobs.
SIRKIN: It is a doctor's duty to speak out to protect their patients. These physicians were doing nothing more than following the hypocaratic oath and the Geneva conventions.
SARA: The former conflict zone in the north of the country is still tightly controlled. Journalists are only able to visit the displacement camps with the approval and supervision of the Sri Lankan military. The civilians in the camps are unable to leave. The true death toll from the final battles of the war, remains unknown.
