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saw no weapons, no bunkers or artillery.” He continued, “When the LTTE has heavy
weapons they don’t show them because they’re afraid someone will inform.” 76
The woman who lost her husband said that about 15 LTTE fighters stayed in some
huts about 600 meters from the school. “They had rifles but no heavy guns,” she
said. 77 This matches other reports that the LTTE had sentries around the camp.
The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, which entered Vaharai on the afternoon of
November 8, confirmed the witness accounts. “Our monitors saw there were no
military installations in the camp area, so we would certainly like some answers from
the military regarding the nature and reasons of this attack,” SLMM spokeswoman
Helen Olafsdottir said. 78
Even if the LTTE had exercised control over the IDP camp, that would not have
affected the camp’s fundamentally civilian nature that prohibited attacks against it.
Having guards around the camp and even abducting children and young adults from
the camp for use as LTTE fighters—as some displaced persons reported to Sri Lankan
human rights activists—would not have transformed the Kathiravelli camp from a
protected civilian object into a legitimate military target.
The laws of armed conflict, applicable in Sri Lanka’s civil war, require military forces
to distinguish at all times between combatants and civilians. Civilians and civilian
objects may never be targeted for attack. Attacking forces must take all feasible
measures to ensure that a target is in fact a military objective. 79
76 Human Rights Watch interview with displaced person, Valaichchenai, February 26, 2007.
77 Human Rights Watch interview with Mutur resident, Valaichchenai, February 26, 2007.
78 Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi, “Sri Lanka Says Sinks Rebel Boats as Thousands Flee,” Reuters, November 8, 2006, and
“Anger of Lanka Civilian Deaths,” BBC, November 9, 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6131566.stm
(accessed May 3, 2007).
79 The war in Sri Lanka is governed by international humanitarian treaty law and customary law applicable during noninternational
armed conflicts. Sri Lanka is a state party to the Geneva Conventions of 1949. While it is not party to the Protocol
Additional of 1977 to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts
(Protocol I) or the Protocol Additional of 1977 to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-
International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), most of their provisions are considered reflective of customary international law.
An authoritative study of customary international humanitarian law is the ICRC’s two-volume Customary International
Humanitarian Law (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
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