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Civilians wade across lagoon to escape war zone
Ed Harris14.05.09
At least 2,000 ethnic Tamil civilians braved rebel fire and waded across a lagoon today to break clear of Sri Lanka's war zone.
Rebel fighters opened fire on at least 2,000 civilians as they fled today across a lagoon separating government and rebel forces, a Sri Lankan military spokesman said. Most of the civilians managed to escape, but four were killed and 14 others wounded, he said.
The Red Cross said the tiny strip of coastal land held by the separatist rebels was wracked by fighting, despite appeals from US President Barack Obama and the UN for the two sides to end the civil war and release the 50,000 civilians trapped in the area.
The government has cornered the Tamil Tigers on the strip of land bordered by the sea on one side and a vast lagoon on the other. Recent fighting and shelling, including on a makeshift hospital, has killed hundreds of civilians. The rebels have denied accusations they were holding the civilians as human shields and shooting at those trying to flee.
The Red Cross sent a ferry for a third day to the war zone to try to deliver desperately needed food aid and to evacuate the wounded, but by Thursday afternoon it was still not able to land because of the violence.
Reader views (2)
I am extreamly concerned about the civilians casualties there fore, the protest must go on peacefully until this conflict comes to an end. .
- V Jegan, Kingsbury,London, Uk
This has been a war without reporters and hence it has come to this stage 28 years after:
Virginia Leary: Ethnic Conflict and Violence in Sri Lanka - Report of International Commission of Jurists 1981
"The South African Terrorism Act has been called 'a piece of legislation which must shock the conscience of a lawyer.' Many of the provisions of the Sri Lankan Act are equally contrary to accepted principles of the Rule of Law. .... The application of the principle of self-determination in concrete cases is difficult. It seems, nevertheless, that a credible argument can be made that the Tamil community in Sri Lanka is entitled to self-determination. The fate of the Tamils in Sri Lanka remains a matter of international concern''.
The Review, International Commission of Jurists, December 1983:
"The impact of the communal violence on the Tamils was shattering... The evidence points clearly to the conclusion that the violence of the Sinhala rioters on the Tamils amounted to Acts of Genocide".
''War-on-terror'' has been a smokescreen to keep state terror from the international community.
- Punitham, bexleyheath, uk
