Reporters Without Borders urges the Sri Lankan authorities to quickly release three Tamil doctors - Thangamuttu Sathiyamorthi, Thurairaja Varatharajan and V. Sunmugarajah - who have been arrested for providing the news media with information about the humanitarian situation in Vanni.

“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,” Reporters Without Borders 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 yesterday 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.