Sri Lankan authorities have arrested three Tamil doctors - Thangamuttu Sathiyamorthi, Thurairaja Varatharajan and V. Sunmugarajah - for providing the news media with information about the humanitarian situation in Vanni, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported.
“The government will be held responsible if the army’s military victory is accompanied by such criminal acts of revenge against those have who have described the humanitarian tragedy,” RSF said. “We urge the authorities to act with clemency and not use the Tamil Tiger defeat for a generalised settling of scores with Tamil civil society. We are also concerned for the few Tamil journalists who covered the recent events.”
A health ministry official said on Monday that the three Tamil doctors were arrested for providing false civilian casualty figures to the national and international media. The army arrested them as they were fleeing the combat zone.
