One of the reasons quoted for the United States debacle in Vietnam was the claim that if body counts maintained by their intelligence services were accurate, it would have resulted in the deaths of every able bodied Vietnamese male twice over.

There has been a lot of comment in the recent battles over body counts. May I please have an opportunity to recount some of my experiences.

In 1958 I was newly qualified and the first thing I did was to see to the safety of batchmates and friends. There was no Accident Service then, only the Casualty Ward and I with many others, chipped in to help. The numbers of injured were not proportionate to the nameless violence all around and a quick visit to the mortuary also confirmed this.

In 1983 the violence was much worse and I traveled with SCF to the Ratmalana Airport and with the Red Cross to all the refugee centers. There was immense loss of property and fear and suffering and again to my surprise, not as many deaths as one would have expected, though this produced the opportunity for the psychopaths among us to enjoy themselves. I wonder if this was the provocation for the behaviour of the LTTE in the years that followed.

After the massacre at Anuradhapura I was in a group of volunteers to set up a relief unit to go to the aid of civilians. The Rapid Deployment Surgical Service came into being, and thanks to the genius and dedication of Dr. Rohan Pethiyagoda, chief of Biomedical Engineering Services with other engineering services from Jinasena Ltd. the Unit was in being. We had a large 6 ton truck converted to an operating theatre and this was taken to Anuradhapura. We were to be flown to Anuradhapura when an emergency arose and take off from there in our vehicles.

Unfortunately there was a spy at Biomedical Engineering. A village near Kebitigollewa was attacked and the roads leading to it were heavily mined. We set off from Colombo by air only to be told of this on reaching Anuradhapura. A young AGA unknowingly gave up his life for us. He rushed to the scene only to be blown up.

At this point an agreement was reached between the Ministry and the Army to supply us with transport in return for surgical services which were in short supply in the Army.

During the Vadamaaratchi operation Plastic Surgeon Narendra Wijemanne and I were summoned to Puloli hospital. The scene in the Surgical ward was like something from Dante’s inferno. There were over 300 people in this 30 bed ward. Men, women and children on beds, under beds and all over the floor making it impossible even to walk into the ward.

"They won’t go doctor," said the young Lieutenant "They are telling me to wait, like they were expecting something."

Just then a sargeant walked into say that the soup kitchen was ready and I suggested that he take it some distance away, let all those who were not injured go out and to not allow anyone to come back.

The effect was magical.

We were left with only 30 patients most of whom had already been attended to and it didn’t take long for us to attend to them. In the meantime the Medical corps people had opened the linen cupboard and made the beds so that we were soon finished with everyone done up in posh splints and bandages courtesy of the Australian Red Cross.

One of our people had asked for some water to drink and was very hurt that it was brought in a bucket and cup obviously from the lavatory.

The hospital secretary had worked with me at Anuradhapura and when I asked how many were dead he said:

"Many Sir" when asked.

"How many 10, 20, 30 or more."

"Many Sir."

So I asked to see the mortuary. He said "All taken Sir."

How, I asked. There is a curfew and you say that you don’t even have firewood to cook.

So then I asked to see the Mortuary register because none could have been taken without an entry in the book and a certificate being given.

He finally told me the story. There were two deaths two very old ladies. He went on to say that the army had dropped leaflets asking all civilians to get into the kovil which was not attacked. He went, on to explain that all the injured were those who were denied access to the kovil and had taken refuge in the school.

The helicopter that came to collect us was full of journalists eager to describe a pitiful situation.

The videos shown by the BBC and BY AL JAZEERA were full of inconsistencies.

As shown by Al Jaz themselves the shell attack was debunked because there was no damage to windows glassware and roofs as could be expected from any kind of explosion.

The row of ‘bodies’ shown from the waist down did not have their legs in the cadaveric position and there was no blood anywhere not even on the immaculate white surgical gown of the doctor who claimed that he was attending to severely injured patients 24/7.

No Blood anywhere. An adult patient will have 5 litres at least and 300 in the small space shown will make a pool at least ankle deep. Why was there not a drop anywhere?

I hope not only for the sake of the three doctors concerned but also for all of us medics in this country that they had acted in this charade under duress with an LTTE AK 47 held to their backs.