Sri Lanka: conditions unstable for civilians trapped in conflict

The humanitarian and security situation for civilians caught up in fighting between Government forces and separatist Tamil rebels in northern Sri Lanka remains precarious, a United Nations spokesperson said today.

Shelling is still reported in the so-called ‘no fire zone’ of the Vanni region and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have maintained its campaign of forcible recruitment while confining people to the area, Michele Montas told reporters in New York.

The conflict zone shrank from 300 square kilometres to nearly 58 square kilometres in February, with many civilians – the UN puts their number at between 100,000 and 200,000 – sheltering in a new 14-square kilometre no-fire zone.

These internally displaced persons (IDPs) have limited access to food, safe water, sanitation facilities and medical assistance, with the International Red Cross delivering a two-week supply of medicines aboard a ship to the zone and the World Food Programme (WFP) preparing to send 1,000 tons of food to the area by the end of the week.

Since January, some 44,756 IDPs have escaped the conflict zone into makeshift camps, located mostly in Vavuniya, as well as Mannar and Jaffna, and a total of 3,701 shelters have been constructed at various IDP sites in Vavuniya District, where the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is setting up a temporary medical facility.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other top UN officials have been calling over recent months on the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE to suspend hostilities to allow civilians to leave the conflict zone and allow immediate humanitarian access to them.