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Near 40,000 civilians have fled rebels' hold in Sri Lanka
Xinhua,
march 13.
The Sri Lankan government said Thursday that 39,324 civilians have left the battle zone in the north and arrived in government welfare centers.
Mahinda Samarasinghe, the minister of Human Rights told reporters that over 33,000 of the fled civilians are being accommodated in the northern town of Vavuniya.
Samarasinghe said the International Committee of the Red Cross has evacuated over 3,000 sick and wounded from Puttumattalan area in the Mullaithivu district in nine sea evacuations.
The government has charged that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are holding Tamil civilians as human shields in the current fighting.
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Published: Thu Mar 12 21:28:09 EDT 2009
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UN accuses Tamil Tigers of misusing food aid
AFP,
March 11, 2009.
COLOMBO (AFP) — The United Nations on Wednesday accused the Tamil Tigers of siphoning off food meant for severely malnourished children in Sri Lanka's embattled north.
The UN said a high energy food supplement known as "BP-100" found on a Tamil Tiger rebel killed in ongoing fighting was sent for children in the region in June 2007.
"The United Nations deplores that such life saving items, destined for severely malnourished children, were diverted from their intended purpose," the UN said in a statement.
There was no immediate comment from the Tigers.
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Published: Thu Mar 12 09:55:00 EDT 2009
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Tigers cornered with war waning
Washignton Times,
march 13.
In 2006, Tasha Manoranjan decided to take a year off from school for an unusual reason. The 20-year-old Ohioan had read that violence had been escalating in northern Sri Lanka, the home of her Tamil ancestors, where she had spent the summer two years earlier.
Concerned, Ms. Manoranjan decided to return. She spent the next year traveling through northern Sri Lanka and teaching in group homes for girls, many of which had been bombed out and lacked electricity and plumbing.
Ms. Manoranjan found herself trapped in a cycle of violence that had raged for nearly 30 years between the Sri Lankan government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Today, government soldiers have Tiger fighters cornered in the northeast with their backs to the coast. Sri Lankan forces anticipate an end to a seemingly interminable war. But Ms. Manoranjan says that peace is unlikely to come.
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Published: Thu Mar 12 21:09:19 EDT 2009
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