AFP photo: Troops capture an almost-deserted city of Mullaitivu.
Groups including the UN, Care, and local organization Sarvodaya have now been accused of being “pro-war” because they’ve pressured the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) to respect human rights. Care was the only group mentioned by name in the statement. According to the Washington Post,
The military, in a statement on the Defense Ministry’s Web site, said aid groups operating in Sri Lanka had “hoodwinked” the world and did not want the war to end “to secure their income through a continued bloodshed.”
BBC quotes the statement describing
A “vicious coalition” that had “been pretending to be humanitarian agencies, aid agencies, free media, civil rights movements, etc, have made the continued bloodshed on Sri Lankan soil a lucrative business for them…”
This outrageous claim follows last week’s dismissal of claims of civilian deaths because they came from “unsubstantiated” sources– unsubstantiated because GOSL permits neither reporters nor human rights groups near the battlefield.