Civilians flee Sri Lanka war zone

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Source: CCTV.com | 04-24-2009 20:48

More than a hundred thousand civilians in Sri Lanka have left their homes in the no-fire zone since Monday. 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.

More than a hundred thousand civilians in Sri Lanka have left their homes in the no-fire zone since Monday.

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, the United Nations 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."

Guterres says much needs to be done for the people who managed to escape. He cited screening and reception, humanitarian aid, and preparing for their future.

Antonio Guterres said, "Because it's not enough to win a war, it is necessary to win a peace. And to win a peace it's important that these people feel that they will be perfectly integrated in the society."

Since the mid-1980s, more than seventy thousand people have been killed, as the LTTE began to rebel against the government, on claims of discrimination against the minority Tamils.

Editor:Yang Jie