humanitarian crisis
20 May 2009
People have been celebrating on the streets of Colombo - flags hoisted, fire crackers going off. But those who fled the fighting in the north-east face an uncertain future after months of trauma. Tony Senewiratne, national director for Habitat for Humanity in Sri Lanka, has just returned from a camp for displaced people and describes the humanitarian challenges ahead.
CNN-IBN just happens to be on my television. This is what I see on the chyron, interspersed with the occasional story, mostly full of b-reel footage of the SLA and unending lines of shell-shocked families marching to an uncertain future.
Read between these lines below and you will see the war and its political context in India, stripped of all complexity and boiled down to its essential absurdity:
. . .
22 Apr 2009
Thousands more civilians surged out of Sri Lanka's war zone on Wednesday, while soldiers and Tamil Tiger rebels fought the apparent endgame of Asia's longest-running war despite calls to protect those still trapped.
. . .
On Tuesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross had said the war zone situation was "catastrophic," with several hundred killed since Monday and at least 50,000 more remaining at risk with limited food, water and medical care.
22 Apr 2009
Two senior Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka have surrendered to the military, the army says.
It says that the rebels' media co-ordinator, Daya Master, gave himself up along with a top interpreter, named George, who worked for senior rebels.
Correspondents say that if the reports are true it will be a major setback for the rebel leadership.
27 Feb 2009
As Sri Lanka’s armed forces battle the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in their last stronghold, the island country’s influential neighbour, India, is weighing diplomatic options to goad President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government to save civilians trapped in the war zone.
