Personal data
Name
Ratnam Saraswathy
Date of birth
1946
Age
60
Place of birth
–
Biographical details
Ratnam Saraswathy was 60 years old at the time of her murder and lived in Kilinochchi district. This area is under Tamil administration.
Indcident
Date
02.11.2006
Location
Kilinochchi
Description
In the poorly resourced health service in the Vanni area the Kilinochchi district hospital is the only one with a few modern facilities. In 1998 it was bombed out and destroyed. The hospital was eventually rebuilt and opened in a new location in 2005. Sri Lankan Air Force bombers bombed the precincts of the newly built Kilinochchi district hospital again on 2 November 2006. Sixteen bombs were dropped and fifteen of them exploded. One house behind the hospital was flattened. Five civilians inside the home, including two students of Kilinochchi Central College, were killed. The Kilinochchi district hospital sustained damages. Three hospital employees and three patients also were injured. The roof ceiling of the hospital fell down. Shrapnel were strewn inside many of the hospital wards including the maternity ward. The bombing forced the patients to run out of the hospital in panic in the middle of treatment. Three hundred inpatients and 700 outpatients scattered in fear. Among them were newborn infants and mothers who had just given birth to them. Since it was school closing time school children also screamed and ran in panic. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) viewed the dead, injured and the damages to the hospital. Ratnam Saraswathy was one of the victims.
Legal situation (investigation/criminal proceedings)
No one was ever held accountable and there were no criminal proceedings in court. The Sri Lankan officers, who commanded it, and the responsible soldiers have not been convicted to this day.