Doctors at center of human rights row

Dr. T. Sathiyamoorthy, who was arrested and accused of giving false information to the international community, provided this photo that he says shows artillery shells exploding on the beach near Mullivaikkal inside Sri Lanka's northern no-fire zone on April 28, 2009. (Dr. T. Sathiyamoorthy)

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NEW YORK and COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — “Dear Friends, Nice to contact after 100 days.”

So began an email sent at the end of August from a Sri Lankan government doctor after three months of detainment by the country’s Terrorist Investigation Division.

The author, Dr. T. Sathiyamoorthy, along with four of his medical colleagues, had been arrested and accused of giving false information to the international community during the last months of Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war, which the government won definitively in May when it defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE or Tamil Tigers).

From January to May 15, when they were arrested, the doctors communicated from the war zone almost daily, sending reports of casualties and photographs that often showed dead bodies, shallow bunkers and malnourished children.

Held under provisions of the government's "emergency regulations," which allow the detainment of suspects for 18 months without formal charges or access to legal representation, the doctors went silent as they began months of interrogation by the government.

Their release in August was by no means viewed as a victory by the human rights groups and medical organizations who had been monitoring their cases. One doctor remains in prison and the other four are on parole until their court hearing scheduled for Nov. 9.

Physicians for Human Rights has said that the detention of the doctors was an attempt to suppress reports about civilians casualties and attacks on hospitals during the last months of the war.

"An embarrassed government has no right to detain doctors for practicing neutral medicine and for providing factual reports about the humanitarian and health situation on the ground," said Frank Donaghue, chairman of PHR.

Many in the international community, including the EU, have called for an independent inquiry to find out what exactly happened in the war zone, known as the Vanni, where the doctors were stationed. The final civilian death toll ranges from a U.N. estimate of 7,000 people to a Times of London report that claimed more than 20,000 civilians were killed. Both sides of the 25-year conflict have been accused of war crimes. Responding to allegations that the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) used people trapped in the war zone as a human shield, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said, “the brutal and inhuman treatment of civilians by the LTTE is utterly reprehensible, and should be examined to see if it constitutes war crimes.”

The Sri Lankan government is facing equally serious accusations. In August, a cell phone video that purportedly shows government troops executing naked, unarmed prisoners was circulated widely online. Government officials have rebuked calls for any independent investigations of the incident or any other war related matters.

Many human rights groups believe the physicians who were arrested could help illuminate the extent of war atrocities committed during the end days of the conflict. The doctors kept the only known detailed accounts of civilian casualties, and provided information and documentation to media outlets around the world.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/asia/090904/sri-lanka-doctors