00:09On the 21st of January, the government announced the creation of what they called a no-fire zone.
00:18U.S. Embassy to Secstate D.C.
00:21Summary.
00:22This 35 square kilometer safe zone, which is in the area still under the nominal control of the LTTE,
00:29will provide an area free of government shelling.
00:33Among the hundreds of thousands heading for the imagined safety of the no-fire zone
00:38were two international UN staff workers who'd led a food convoy into the war zone and been trapped by the
00:45fighting.
00:46When we arrived in the no-fire zone, I mean, it literally was a sea of people.
00:50Tens of thousands of tents and tarpaulins, families sheltered under them.
00:55They set up a food distribution hub, spoke to the Tiger police,
00:59and notified both the UN headquarters and government forces of their GPS coordinates to avoid any accidental shelling.
01:08Three or four hours later, in the evening, we sustained a barrage of mortar attack
01:18coming from the south across the forward defensive line into the no-fire zone
01:24and into the food distribution centre.
01:28After the first few shells had landed,
01:33I went outside the bunkers in order to try to get,
01:36establish a communications link with the satellite in order to call Colombo
01:40to ask, request that the Sri Lankan military redirect its fire away from us
01:48because these, these ordnance were landing precariously close to our position,
01:53you know, within five to ten metres of where we were camped.
01:58The body of a young woman landed on top of me.
02:01She'd been decapitated and most of her torso and her legs had been torn apart
02:08by obviously a fair amount of shrapnel that had gone through her when the shells struck.
02:17It was dark, it was frightening,
02:18and I kind of had a sense that I was just waiting to die,
02:22that this, my luck was going to run out soon.
02:31Lying all around the field.
02:37With my limited knowledge of humanitarian law,
02:41I realised that in fact what I was witnessing
02:44was very, very serious potential war crimes.
02:50I started to take photographs.
02:52I had my staff take photographs.
02:55We also started to GPS things,
02:57and we noted the direction of fire
02:59for many of the incidents that occurred
03:02and the type of weapons that were used.
03:05And I would say to anyone that says to me,
03:07how do you know in the direction of fire
03:09if you stand on the side of a freeway
03:11and a car goes past you, even if you've got your eyes closed,
03:13you know which direction the car's coming from.
03:16It's the same with weapons.
03:18You can always tell.
03:21There's a crucial point to be made about
03:22why the Sri Lankan government declared the no-fire zone
03:26within the effective range of all of the weaponry
03:29being used by the Sri Lankan military
03:31to fire in that direction.
03:34There is only one intent,
03:36and that is because you don't really care
03:39whether or not you're going to kill the people
03:41that are located in that safe zone.
03:44or, more importantly,
03:46you're actively targeting them.
03:49Do you believe that's what was happening?
03:52Yes.
03:54Yes.
03:56Yes.
03:56Yes.
04:01Yes.
04:05Yes.
04:17Yes.
04:18Yes.
04:21Yes.
04:22Yes.
04:22Yes.
04:22Yes.
04:23Yes.
04:23Yes.
04:23Yes.
04:24Yes.
04:25Yes.
04:25Yes.
04:25Yes.
04:26Yes.
04:26Honey! Honey! Honey! Honey! Honey!
Comentarios