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unresolved case of poison gas inhalation Due to the lack of facilities available in this country to perform advanced medical tests and delays that might have occurred due to the inefficiency in procedures adopted in instances of this nature including the absence of a specially trained team could have led to the chemical substance inhaled by the soldier escaping detection. Saman Kumara Weerakoon a soldier attached to the 5th Battalion of the Sri Lanka Army Signal Corps (a volunteer unit) was admitted to hospital on June 16 after he fell ill while on duty in a bunker in an area 11 kilometres north east of Welioya. This is said to be in close proximity to where the one-four base believed to be used by LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is located. The patient had developed symptoms which is said to occur from gas inhalation. The incident had occurred early in the morning on June 16, and Saman Kumara had been rushed to the Padaviya hospital. He had reached Padaviya hospital by about 8.00 am, however the medical officers at Padviya hospital had asked him to be admitted to the Anuradhapura General Hospital. The patient had then been transferred to the Anuradhapura General Hospital and had been admitted to hospital at about 11.30 am. Even though the patient was admitted to the hospital on the 16th blood samples had been taken from the patient only two days later. The blood samples that had been extracted from the soldier had remained at the hospital for almost a week from June 18 to June 26 as it was decided that the blood samples must be sent to the Government Analyst's Department for analysis under special protection. Meanwhile when
a police officer from the Welioya police had arrived at the Anuradhapura
General Hospital on June 26 to collect the blood samples to be brought
to Colombo under special protection, the hospital authorities had
at that point decided to transport the samples under refrigeration,
thus causing a further delay. Colombo University's Forensic Medicine chief and Chairman of the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board Professor Ravindra Fernando, told The Sunday Times that if a proper medical analysis was to be carried out on a toxin, the blood samples should be obtained from a patient as soon as possible though in this instance a delay of two days had occurred from the time the illness was first detected. Prof. Fernando said that the fact that the blood samples had remained in the hospital without any tests being done for a period of more than 10 days may have had a negative impact on the results of the tests conducted on the samples. "It is unfortunate that, in instances of this nature, we do not have proper facilities nor advanced medical equipment in Sri Lanka to carry out the required medical tests", Professor Fernando said. This was also confirmed by a senior official of the Government Analyst's Department. When we inquired about the two day delay which had occurred before the blood samples were extracted from the patient, the Anuradhapura Hospital's acting director said that normally blood samples are not taken from patients who come in for treatment in a poison related incidents, but in this instance we obtained a sample as the Judicial Medical Officer had made a special request. A Sri Lankan Official of the Chemical Weapons Convention (Convention for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons based in Netherlands) told The Sunday Times that the lack of a specialized team to act in situations of this nature has spurred those in authority to take necessary action to have in place a specialised group which would act quickly, as a sort of a rapid reaction force to react in an emergency situation of this nature. Sources said that another question that is being asked regarding this incident is why the Defence Ministry officials had not made arrangements to send these samples to another country which has the facilities and the capability to conduct the necessary medical tests to identify the chemical composition of gas the soldier is alleged to have inhaled before falling ill. A senior official of the Health Ministry told The Sunday Times that upto date no request had been made to the Ministry of Health by the Defence authorities for the samples to be sent abroad for a medical analysis. A senior army officer who did not want to be identified said that it was the responsibility of the medical experts in the country to do whatever is necessary to identify the toxin used if at all, because in the event the LTTE is alleged to be in possession of such material, it would pose a major threat to National Security. The officer went on to say that if the LTTE had allegedly used such a poisonous gas it would be a violation of the 'Protocol for the prohibition of the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and bacteriological methods of warfare'. Steps
to be taken in the future The members include representatives from the Defence Ministry, the Army, Department of the Government Analyst and health officials. At present they have drawn up plans to educate relevant parties on how to act and what steps are to be followed in such a situation until members of this committee arrive at the scene of the incident. As the lack of facilities in the country had a negative impact in solving the mystery related to the incident, members of the Chemical Weapons Convention hope to seek foreign assistance through the government to install facilities like concealed labs to analyse gas like substances. The Members of the Chemical Weapons Convention would also like to invite the services of experts in this field who are prepared to contribute to the information possessed by the committee with a view to respond to emergency situations in the future. |
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