New York, May 15 2009 12:00PM
The United Nations advocate for displaced persons today expressed his concern over civilians caught up in clashes between Government forces and rebels in northern Sri Lanka, as well as for the ongoing confinement of uprooted people in camps.
At least 50,000 people are still trapped in the conflict zone – a tiny space of just several square kilometres on the northern coastline – and they are "exposed to great danger and without access to sufficient humanitarian access," said Walter Kälin, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Representative for the Human Rights of Displaced Persons.
The separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is preventing civilians from leaving the area and placing military installations close to them, while, for its part, the Government has been using heavy weapons such as mortars in the conflict zone in recent days, he added.
"This combination of factors must have resulted in unacceptably high numbers of civilian casualties," Mr. Kälin underscored.
The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement that heavy fighting earlier this week precluded it from evacuating the wounded and sick from the conflict zone and from delivering food to civilians.
"I call on the LTTE to let the remaining civilians go and both sides to agree to humanitarian pauses for that purpose as well as to allow humanitarian access to bring in much-needed food and medicines and evacuate the wounded," the Representative said.
Further, both sides are obligated to follow international humanitarian law, he emphasized. "Even if one party to the conflict is deliberately using civilians as human shields, the other party is still prohibited from carrying out attacks that are indiscriminate in their consequences or result in a disproportional loss of civilian life."
Mr. Kälin also expressed his concern over the dire living conditions in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) who escaped the conflict, with the influx of an additional 110,000 people during the last 10 days of April posing further challenges for the Government and its humanitarian partners.
"Ensuring adequate humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons is first and foremost a Government responsibility, especially since the Government decided to intern them in camps, citing security concerns," he said, adding that authorities continue to hold nearly 200,000 IDPs in temporary camps.
He further called attention to the need to screen and register the displaced without delay and to restore the freedom of movement for the large number of them who are not security risks.
"Prolonged internment of such persons would not only amount to arbitrary detention but it also aggravates the humanitarian situation needlessly," the Representative said.
Although he welcomes reports that, as of the end of last month, over 1,200 people – mostly elderly, mentally disabled and other vulnerable people – had been released from the camps, he voiced concern that some elderly people had died from starvation or malnutrition in the sites, calling on the Government to immediately release all vulnerable people still in the camps.
In a related development, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) <"http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/wfp-providing-meal-thousands-sri-lankans-fleeing-civil-conflict">announced today that it has started providing cooked meals at a Government screening point for thousands of people fleeing the fighting.
"For many, this will be the first hot meal they have had in days or perhaps much longer," said Adnan Khan, WFP Representative in Sri Lanka, adding that overnight, 3,000 people arrived in Omanthai.
IDPs must pass through screening points before they can move onto temporary transit centres in Vavuniya and Jaffna.
WFP, which is feeding nearly 200,000 people in northern Sri Lanka, is sending food supplies to Omanthai, where the agency, along with a local partner, are responsible for cooking and distributing food.
Since Tuesday, three attempts to deliver food by ship to the conflict zone have been unsuccessful due to the security situation, and the agency is appealing for an additional $42 million to meet the rapidly-increasing needs of IDPs.
In a telephone conversation with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Wednesday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reiterated his concerns about the protection of civilians caught up in the conflict.
"As you will recall, the Secretary-General urged the Government of Sri Lanka to explore all possible options to bring the conflict to an end without further bloodshed and to make public the terms under which that can be achieved without further loss of civilian life," UN spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters yesterday.
"He urged the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to give sober and positive consideration of those terms."
Mr. Ban has also dispatched one of his top advisers, his Chef de Cabinet, Vijay Nambiar, to Sri Lanka "to underscore his message and help to resolve the humanitarian situation there," Ms. Okabe said.
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