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Heavy fighting in Sri Lanka s northeast
Associated Press,
Feb 16.
The United Nations warned Monday that civilians trapped in Sri Lanka's northern war zone were in "dire need of humanitarian assistance" and called on the government and rebels to stop fighting in heavily populated areas.
Government forces have nearly routed the Tamil Tigers after a quarter century of civil war, trapping them in a shrinking coastal area in the northeast along with an estimated 200,000 civilians.
Independent reports from the area were not available because journalists are barred from the war zone, but health officials estimated last week that 40 civilians were being killed every day.
"The U.N. calls on both sides to find an orderly and humane solution so that civilians and children in particular — can be spared further bloodshed and loss of life due to both disease and the fighting," it said in a statement.
Those trapped in the fighting were facing severe shortages of food, medicine, and clean water, and increasing numbers were becoming ill, the U.N. said in a statement.
"Efforts to bring in more food and medicines have not yet been successful, and it is imperative that these needs be met," the U.N. said.
The U.N. also accused the rebels of preventing civilians from fleeing saying, "reports indicate that a growing number of people trying to leave have been shot and sometimes killed."
The rebels have denied holding civilians as human shields and shooting some who tried to flee.
The U.N. said 15 members of its local staff, along with 75 of their dependents — 40 of them children — were stuck in rebel-held areas because the Tamil Tigers were not allowing them to leave.
Fifteen of the children contracted respiratory diseases, "a serious indicator for a population which is now in dire need of humanitarian assistance," the U.N. said.
The United Nations also accused the rebels of forcibly recruiting civilians as young as 14, as well as one of the trapped U.N. staffers.
The U.N. also reported fighting Sunday inside a 7.5-mile-long (12-kilometer-long) strip of land the government demarcated last week as a refuge for civilians trapped inside the war zone.
Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara denied there was fighting Sunday in the "safe zone."
Meanwhile, government troops fought heavy battles against rebels Sunday, capturing thousands of rounds of ammunition, artillery shells and mortar systems, the military said.
Also Monday, the Red Cross evacuated 400 people by ferry from a makeshift hospital along the coast inside the war zone, said Red Cross spokeswoman Sarasi Wijeratne.
The Tamil Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for an independent state for minority Tamils, who have been marginalized for decades by successive governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting.
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Published: Mon Feb 16 15:26:36 EST 2009
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