I Will take care of you

A French doctor is seen here treating an injured civilian at a makeshift hospital in Cheddikulam, Vavuniya. Doctors at the French field hospital said that among those who were treated were those with white hands, possibly caused by burns from phosphorus-- an incendiary weapon which is banned from use in civilian areas under an international convention.
Over the last two weeks, the team of 72 surgeons, doctors, nurses and other staff have already treated 700 people, 100 of whom have been put on the operating table.

And under the scalpel, the skinny and traumatised displaced have given a gruesome picture of how Tamil civilians have paid a heavy price in what the island's government says has been a "rescue mission."

Their wounds show how ordinary and impoverished villagers -- male and female, young and old -- have been shot, shelled, bombed and burned as the bitter ethnic conflict enters its bloody final phase.

One surgeon, Daniel Gaujoux, said he was "stunned by the number of machine gun bullets and shrapnel we are pulling out" from civilians who managed to escape.

"We've removed 30 bullets in 10 days -- around 10 of them from the arms and legs of children, and even one from the knee of an old woman," said Frederic Vavdin, another member of the French government aid team. (AFP)