News and Politics | March 23, 2009 | 3 comments

150,000 Sri Lankans face humanitarian crisis trapped in 'no fire zone', warns UN

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More than 150,000 people are being shelled daily and are running short of water and medicine in a Sri Lankan-government declared "No Fire Zone", according to witness reports and United Nations briefing documents obtained by the Guardian.

Tens of thousands of people are caught between the last 1,500 fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the advancing troops of the Sri Lankan army. The civilians are trapped on a thin strip of land - estimated at 13.5 square miles (35 square kilometers) - on Sri Lanka's north-east coast.

The UN warns that if people stay they risk being killed by government shells and if they try to leave they will be in danger of being shot by the Tigers. Diplomats say there is a real danger that a bloody denouement to the 25-year-old civil war could result in an "all-out humanitarian catastrophe".
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