News and Politics | January 28, 2009 | 20 comments

Doctors Without Borders: 250,000 civilians trapped in intense fighting in Sri Lanka

source: http://doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article.cfm?id=3372&cat=field-news&ref=enewsletter&sou...

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JanforGore
MSF Denied Access to Assist Victims in War Zone

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is very concerned for the safety of an estimated 250,000 people trapped in heavy fighting in the Vanni in northern Sri Lanka. Hundreds of civilians are reported to have been wounded and killed during the last days as the LTTE-controlled area has shrunk in the face of the government of Sri Lanka’s military offensive.

MSF has received reports from the Vanni that the plight of the civilians is dire. Hospitals are coping to the best of their ability, but are running low on drugs and medical staff. Ambulances are having difficulty moving across front lines to evacuate wounded. MSF is standing by with medical staff and supplies, but has not been permitted to enter the area since the government told all NGOs and UN to leave the area in September 2008. This despite several requests from Sri Lanka Ministry of Health staff still in the Vanni.

Though roughly 2000 people have managed to cross to the relative safety of Vavuniya in the past weeks, most of the population is unable to leave. It is vital that both parties to the conflict respect the right of the civilians to seek safety, and to facilitate their movement in whatever way possible.

In the Vavuniya area, MSF is prepared with mobile clinics in case of large-scale displacement and a surgeon will soon arrive to provide additional support to the Vavuniya hospital.

MSF already provides mental health support by strengthening existing structures in the Vavuniya area and provides laboratory support to the hospital, as well as ambulatory feeding programmes in the area. MSF also works in Point Pedro hospital in the Jaffna Peninsula, at the northern tip of Sri Lanka, providing medical and surgical activities, obstetrical, and gynecological treatment and training to the hospital staff
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20 comments // Doctors Without Borders: 250,000 civilians trapped in intense fighting in Sri Lanka

  • Bren589
  • vapid
    • 0
      vapid  

    • it is really sad that this is happening, and the arguments for this being genocide seem worth bearing in mind, especially considering this is all happening behind closed doors...gaza is a tragedy, but i agree that media reporting has been ridiculously disproportionate and unjustifiable

    • 3 years ago
  • Dut
  • WorldPeaceTV
    • 0
      WorldPeaceTV  

    • Prayers out to all the people there, these doctors are AMAZING and doing a service only the Angels could do for mankind. I did see a piece on them in Gaza yesterday helping and operating on the people there.
      God be with them

    • 3 years ago
  • BFAM_RVS
  • clownpuncher
    • 0
      clownpuncher  

    • Wow, I didnt sleep at all last night. I am just so worried about all those poor Sri Lankans that just cant stand up and defend themselves.

    • 3 years ago
  • WhippieWoHo
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • As usual in these wars the military lies. If they are determined to takeover the last bastion of the Tamil Tigers, people are being hurt and killed. And while my heart goes out to innocents in Gaza, I find the fact that places such as this being totally ignored by the media in this country to be unbelievable. Innocent civilians dying anywhere in war should not be shoved under the rug to make room only for the biased stories they are told to report for their sponsors and this government's propaganda. I only hope MSF is allowed access to this area soon.

    • 3 years ago
  • abbym0308
    • 0
      abbym0308  
    • Image

    • The UN has evacuated civilians from the battle zone. They say the injured include 50 severely wounded children, and they've been taken to a hospital in Vavuniya. On Wednesday, the Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa denied the fighting had caused a humanitarian crisis and told the BBC that he had a policy of "zero" civilian casualties. How do you have such a policy? Especially when trusted humanitarian organizations like the Red Cross believe that hundreds of civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands more are trapped in the battle zone.

    • 3 years ago
  • Dut
    • 0
      Dut  

    • George Washington was a freedom fighter, but labeled a terrorist. His people were oppressed and he fought back. He chose to die fighting than be a slave or a second class citizen

      The Tamil Tigers are doing the same.

      Time will tell i guess.

      My bet is that they will get their own state.

    • 3 years ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • Dut:

      I hope they do get their own state, and their water. Otherwise this war is not over even if the military says it is. Those children recruited will grow up and they will remember.

    • 3 years ago
  • Dut
    • 0
      Dut  
    • Dut:

      Of course they will remember.

      My father was one of those who had to pack up everything and leave in 1983 after his store and his house was burned to the ground.

      He never saw is parents again.

    • 3 years ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • A closer look at the conflict. Sad to see children learning killing so young in life.

      Do you think the Tamil Tigers are terrorists or freedom fighters? Are they farmers displaced and kept from their rightful land and water resources who are seeking justice and independence, or terrorists using the population now trapped here as human shields? Personally, I think it is both... one spawned from the other.

    • 3 years ago
  • unimatrix0
    • 0
      unimatrix0  

    • Good post - Important info that is underreported.

      There are so many people in this world and so much tragedy. Sri Lanka is such a dark, tortured place and yet we never her much about it.

    • 3 years ago
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • Image

    • Timeline of Sri-Lankan Civil War.

      From the article:

      More than 70,000 people have died since 1983 and millions have been displaced in the war between the government and Tamil rebels who want a separate state in the island's north and east.

      Here are some milestones charting the conflict.

      1948 - Island of Ceylon gains independence from Britain.

      1956 - Government makes majority Sinhala language the language of state. Minority Tamils say they feel marginalised.

      1958 - First anti-Tamil riots break out, killing dozens and forcing thousands from their homes.

      1972 - Country renamed Sri Lanka, becomes republic. Buddhism designated the principal religion.

      1976 - Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) formed by militant Velupillai Prabhakaran.

      1983 - Tiger attack in north kills 13 soldiers, triggering anti-Tamil riots in capital, Colombo. Hundreds die, thousands flee. Start of what Tigers call "First Eelam War".

      1987 - Having earlier armed Tigers, India sends troops to enforce truce. Tigers renege on pact, refuse to disarm and begin three years of fighting that kills 1,000 Indian soldiers.

      1990 - India withdraws. LTTE controls northern city of Jaffna. "Second Eelam War" begins.

      1991 - Suspected Tiger suicide bomber kills former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in southern India.

      1993 - President Ranasinghe Premadasa assassinated by suicide bomber. LTTE widely blamed.

      1995 - President Chandrika Kumaratunga agrees to truce with rebels. "Eelam War 3" begins when rebels sink naval craft. Tigers lose Jaffna to government forces.

      1995-2001 - War rages across north and east. Suicide attack on central bank in Colombo kills around 100. Kumaratunga wounded in another attack.

      2002 - Landmark ceasefire signed after Norwegian mediation.

      2003 - Tigers pull out of peace talks, ceasefire holds.

      2004 - Tamil Tiger eastern commander Colonel Karuna Amman breaks away from LTTE and takes 6,000 fighters with him. Asian tsunami hits in December, killing around 30,000 Sri Lankans.

      2005 - Suspected Tiger assassin kills foreign minister. Anti-Tiger hardliner Mahinda Rajapaksa wins presidency.

      2006 - Fighting flares in April-July, raising fears of start of "Eelam War 4". New talks fail in Geneva in October.

      2007 - Government captures Tiger's eastern stronghold of Vakarai in January. In July, government says it has driven rebels from the entire east.

      2008 - Government annuls 2002 ceasefire in early January. By August, troops are advancing on Tiger strongholds on four fronts.

      2009 - Jan 2 - Troops seize Tiger's defacto capital, Kilinochchi. Attack helicopters and jets strike remaining rebel towns.

      - Jan 7 - Cabinet redesignates Tigers as a terrorist group, saying they are not allowing civilians to leave war zone.

      - Jan 9 - Troops take Elephant Pass, former army base and gateway to Jaffna peninsula. Tigers cleared from A-9 road that links north to south for first time in 23 years.

      - Jan 25 - Northeastern port of Mullaittivu, the last big rebel-held town, falls. Army says the war is close to the end.

      Source: Reuters

    • 3 years ago
  • JanforGore
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