Sri Lanka pleads for international aid

SRI LANKA pleaded for international help yesterday after Doctors Without Borders warned that civilian casualties are rising rapidly in the country’s war zone despite the exodus of more than 100,000 people.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said he was sending a mission of experts to assess the deteriorating situation. He said the team will be tasked to “monitor the situation and support humanitarian assistance”.

Some 350 wounded and their accompanying relatives were evacuated by the Red Cross to a hospital outside the war zone on Wednesday, according to Red Cross spokeswomen Sarasi Wijeratne. Another evacuation was taking place yesterday, she said. Before those missions, she estimated 1,000 people in the conflict zone were badly wounded and in desperate need of treatment.

Only two ill-equipped makeshift hospitals function in the tiny zone. Dr Thangamuttu Sathyamurthi said his staff is struggling with a shortage of medicine as wounded patients continue to flood the hospitals despite the evacuations. He said 15 people were killed yesterday when shells hit a Roman Catholic church, wounding a priest whose leg was amputated. Another priest was wounded on Wednesday. Both government and rebels deny targeting civilians, but the UN estimates more than 4,500 have been killed in the past three months.

The Security Council expressed concern on Wednesday at the plight of the civilians trapped in the tiny strip still controlled by the Tamil Tigers. The council asked the rebels to lay down their arms, renounce terrorism and join talks to end the nation’s 25-year civil war. It also urged the government to allow international agencies access to those affected by the fighting.

Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama did say, however, the government was working to grant more access to those who had left the constantly shrinking strip of land — which now measures just five square miles (12sq km) and is packed with 15,000 to 20,000 civilians. It says 102,790 civilians escaped the zone so far this week.

Doctors Without Borders said a growing number of badly wounded civilians suffering from blast injuries and gunshot wounds were arriving at a hospital near the zone.

“We’ve been seeing very severely wounded patients, the numbers of patients have increased rapidly over the last three or four days,” Dr Paul McMaster, a surgeon for Doctors Without Borders, said in an interview released by the Swiss-based group. He said the 450-bed hospital has more than 1,700 patients — many housed on the floors, in corridors and outside — and is close to being overwhelmed.

Catherine Bragg, the UN’s deputy humanitarian chief, said in New York that appeals to the government for access to the refugees and for permission to be present at the initial screening of refugees have received no response. Bogollagama cautioned access to those fleeing would be “dependent primarily on the security situation on the ground”. The government has ignored calls to stop the fighting so more civilians could flee, saying it is on the verge of crushing the rebels.