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| Sri Lanka |
| Sri Lanka: UN fears 50,000 trapped in conflict |
| 2009-04-25 |
| [ADN Kronos] The United Nations is sending a humanitarian team to northern Sri Lanka where it fears 50,000 people remain trapped by the worsening conflict between Tamil separatists and government forces. The move comes after the Sri Lankan government rejected international appeals for a pause in the fighting to enable trapped civilians to be evacuated. The government said 100,000 people have fled the area since the conflict between the army and members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam intensified this week. An estimated 60,000 people had already fled in recent months. "So many lives have been sacrificed. There is no time to lose," Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said in Brussels on Thursday. Ban said the new team would monitor the situation and the UN would everything possible to protect the civilian population who are caught in the war zone. The UN refugee council's representative in Colombo, Amin Awad, called on the Sri Lankan government to stop the fighting to enable people to leave and aid to reach those still trapped in the north of the country. Sri Lanka's military on Wednesday said two senior ethnic Tamil rebels had surrendered fuelling speculation that the separatist militants were about to accept defeat. One of the captives was Velayutham Thayanidi, also known as Daya Master, a former spokesman for the LTTE. "The two LTTE leaders along with their family members arrived at the army defence line...this morning and surrendered themselves to the army officials, " a military website said. It was a rare move by members of the LTTE and seen as a sign that the militant group was on the brink of defeat. The militants have been fighting for a separate Tamil state in Sri Lanka's north and east for 25 years. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 I have a dream, the UN building an empty ravaged shell, inhabited only by tramps and bums. (No not the elected bums, real ones.) |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-04-25 19:16 |
| #1 The people of Sri Lanka have (almost) solved a major problem without UN "help". I'm sure there are UN officials all over the world shaking in their boots. "It could happen here" must go through their minds a hundred times a day. Between the Geneva fiasco last week and this, the world is getting a very good look at just how meaningless the UN actually is. Let it continue! |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2009-04-25 14:15 |