Civilians flee Sri Lanka war zone

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Source: CCTV.com | 04-24-2009 13:42

Since Monday, more than a hundred thousand civilians in Sri Lanka have left their homes in the No Fire Zone. It's the last territory controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE. Some of them have untreated blast, mine or gunshot wounds.

Thu Apr 23, 3:17 AM ET In this photograph released by  the Sri Lankan navy April 22, 2009, a Tamil man and  woman carry children after fleeing an area called the  'No Fire Zone' controlled by the Liberation Tigers of  Tamil Eelam(LTTE), in northern Sri Lanka.REUTERS/Sri  Lankan Government/Handout

The 25 year-old insurgency is threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands civilians.

Sri Lanka's Red Cross warned that civilian casualties are rising rapidly, but the government has rejected all the calls for a humanitarian pause in the No Fire Zone.

More than one hundred and seventy thousand people now live in the government camps. But the LTTE says two hundred thousand civilians are still trapped.

Antonio Guterres, UN high commissioner for refugees, said, "All the attempts in order to have a humanitarian pause and the LTTE letting these people go failed. And so these people are still trapped and we hope that the military operations will be conducted with restraint to avoid a blood bath."