As refugees start to flee Sri Lanka, UN refugee agency warns of new violence

The United Nations Refugee agency (UNHCR) said today that its staff in Sri Lanka reports a “trickle” of refugees fleeing to India in fishing boats, raising concerns about the deterioration of the security situation in Sri Lanka.

“Although small, this is the first arrival of refugees to Rameswaram reported since January 2003, and points to a worrisome deterioration of the security situation in the north and east of Sri Lanka, William Spindler, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said, referring to a town on the Indian coast.

UNHCR is also closely monitoring the internal displacement situation, and is prepared to provide humanitarian relief assistance to new internally displaced when and if required, he told journalists in Geneva.

Earlier this week, responding to the deteriorating security situation in Sri Lanka, Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the country’s Government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to support the ceasefire and resume talks, deploring a weekend attack on the facilities of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission.

The Mission was set up under the ceasefire agreement of February 2002 aimed at ending two decades of fighting between the Government and separatist forces that has claimed some 60,000 lives.