The UN’s humanitarian chief was due in Sri Lanka yesterday as international concern over civilians trapped in the island’s warzone fueled a White House call for an immediate ceasefire.
John Holmes’ three-day mission would focus on pushing the government to facilitate humanitarian missions in and around the conflict zone and to allow proper access to tens of thousands of displaced civilians, the UN said.
The plight and suffering of those caught in the fighting between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels prompted US President Barack Obama’s administration on Friday to urge an end to hostilities.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“We call on both sides to stop fighting immediately and allow civilians to safely leave the combat zone,” the White House said in a statement.
The Sri Lankan government has so far resisted all calls to halt an offensive that is now on the brink of wiping out the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, who have been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland since 1972.
The Tigers, once one of the most feared guerrilla organizations in the world, have seen their territory shrink to a sliver of land on the northeast coast estimated to measure 10km².
The White House specifically demanded an end to any military shelling in a designated “safe zone” and access for aid groups and journalists to civilians who have escaped.
A British surgeon working for Medecins Sans Frontieres, Paul McMasters, said his team in the state-run hospital in Vavuniya, near the conflict zone, had been overwhelmed by the influx of injured civilians.
“It’s so crowded that the nurses cannot physically walk around the ward,” he said, estimating the number of patients in a 45-bed ward at around 320.
“There are simply too many people to treat them all. We are not able to save some people because we need to provide more aftercare,” he said.
“There are simply not enough nurses,” he added.
The LTTE issued their own call for foreign intervention, warning of “imminent” starvation among civilians and even suggesting that the situation could deteriorate into a crisis as appalling as that in the Darfur region of Sudan.
It is not clear how many people are trapped in the small rebel-held area. The UN has estimated 50,000, while the government says 15,000 to 20,000 and the Tigers insist the real figure is 165,000.
UN figures released on Friday showed that Sri Lanka’s civil war was killing civilians in greater numbers than the Gaza conflict earlier this year, indicating that almost 6,500 ethnic Tamils had been killed in the last three months.
Two UN officials privately confirmed that 6,432 civilians had died, with 14,000 injured, since the end of January. At least 2,000 people are understood to have been killed in the last month but the death toll does not include those killed in this week’s intense fighting.
The UN has declined to publicly release its casualty figures, but the numbers indicate that, with 500 dying every week, the toll is heavier than it was in Gaza, where a three-week conflict left 1,400 dead. The Sri Lankan government has faced far weaker international censure for its offensive against the Tamil Tigers than Israel did for its war in Gaza.
Colombo denies allegations — supported by credible witness evidence from aid agencies and Tamil civilians — that hundreds of innocent people have been killed by the army in heavy shelling.
The government insists soldiers are only lightly armed and are trying to rescue trapped people. In the propaganda war that has accompanied the crisis the Tamil Tigers have also denied allegations that they were holding civilians hostage as human shields.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS