Hundreds of civilians fled Sri Lanka’s northern war zone yesterday as the president promised the UN that the military would safeguard noncombatants while it pushed ahead with its offensive to crush the Tamil Tiger rebels.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s assurances came after Sri Lankan forces captured the rebels’ biggest sea base, effectively cutting off their main supply point and driving them closer to defeat, and the government rejected calls for a ceasefire that would allow civilians to escape the fighting.
Evidence has grown in recent days of mounting casualties among the estimated 250,000 civilians trapped in the shrinking sliver of land still controlled by the rebels. While reports from the sealed war zone were spotty, the top health official there said last week that 300 civilians had been killed, and the UN said at least 52 civilians were killed on Tuesday.
In a 15-minute phone conversation on Thursday with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Rajapaksa assured the UN chief that the offensive “would be carried out without harassment to the civilian population,” a statement from the president’s office said.
Meanwhile, the military said at least 320 civilians had crossed into the government-controlled area yesterday morning, and another 300 were waiting to cross. A total of 1,637 civilians crossed on Thursday, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said, adding that the government saw this as the start of a large exodus from the war zone.
Amnesty International called on both sides to declare a humanitarian ceasefire to allow civilians out and to let food, water and medical supplies be delivered to those who can’t leave.
“A quarter of a million people are suffering without adequate food and shelter while shells rain down upon them. Most of those who have managed to escape the conflict have not received adequate hospital treatment,” said Yolanda Foster, a researcher at the London-based rights group.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not