Fighting exiles 204,000 Sri Lankans

FIGHTING between Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels and security forces has forced at least 204,000 people from their homes in the eastern and northern parts of the country, the UN food agency warned yesterday.

The figure rose from about 182,000 to 204,000 in just a week and the numbers are still increasing, Jeff Taft-Dick, country director of the World Food Program, told reporters.

He cited the most recent figures from the U.N.’s refugee agency.

The announcement came as an aid ship carrying 1,500 tons of food docked in Jaffna, where it was expected to take several days to unload. It was the first outside source of food to reach the besieged peninsula in nearly two weeks.

UN agencies have put together an emergency contingency plan that predicts another 200,000 people will flee the fighting by the end of the year, Mr Taft-Dick said.

Small scale skirmishes between Tamil Tiger separatists and security forces have been on the rise since December, but in June the military launched its first ground offensive since a 2002 cease-fire and the country was put back on a war footing.

Much of the fighting has revolved around the eastern port of Trincomalee and the Jaffna Peninsula, which the country’s 3.2 million ethnic minority Tamils consider the heart of their culture, but which is controlled by the government.

Mr Taft-Dick said there were still many areas controlled by Tamil Tiger rebels but cut off by the government that aid agencies have not been able to reach.

“We still don’t know how many internally displaced people there really are,” he said.