SRI LANKA: Rising concerns over thousands trapped in conflict areas

[oberliner]

COLOMBO, 19 January 2009 (IRIN) - Concerns are rising over the safety of tens of thousands of civilians trapped in conflict-affected areas in northern Sri Lanka without safe passage out of the fighting.

Officials from the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said more than 230,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Vanni remain precariously close to heavy fighting between government forces and cadres from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

"In Sri Lanka, strict compliance with international humanitarian law is all the more critical with the intensification of fighting in the Vanni region and reports of intermittent artillery fire into civilian populated areas in recent weeks," John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, stated in his report to the Security Council in New York on 14 January.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82449

[Joanne98]

1. This conflict deserves more attention. The Tamils are getting treated like the Palestinians.

Thanks for posting!

[oberliner]

3. Do you think there should be an independent Tamil state?

Any other insights into the situation there?

[malaise]

2. The powers that be don't care

They want that prime land to build hotels. Fuck people who are in the way. :sarcasm:

[oberliner]

4. What, if anything, do you think the US should do

in response to this ongoing conflict?

Do we have a role to play?

[malaise]

5. US citizens should boycott Sri Lankan tourism

for starters.

Both the British and US should stop interfering in other countries - stop trying to run the governments across the globe.