UN official calls on Sri Lanka to open war zone

COLOMBO – A top UN official pressed Sri Lankan leaders yesterday to let aid into the northeastern war zone, as the ruling party won a sweeping victory in an election seen as a referendum on its fight against ethnic Tamil rebels.

The government has pushed deep into the Tamil Tigers’ strongholds in the north in recent months, surrounding the beleaguered rebels and vowing to end the quarter-century war. But reports have grown of starvation and casualties among the tens of thousands of civilians trapped by the fighting.
UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes held meetings yesterday with senior officials in Colombo and was ‘underscoring the urgent need for humanitarian access by the UN to the combat zone,’ UN spokesman Gordon Weiss said.
Aid workers have been barred from the region since fighting escalated in September.
Holmes, who arrived late on Saturday, had previously called on the government to suspend its offensive to allow the estimated 50 000 trapped civilians to escape.
The government has brushed off calls for a cease-fire, saying the rebels will use a pause to regroup. The fighting continued, with the military reporting a string of battles and sniper attacks in the war zone on Saturday.
Holmes was due to head to the northern region of Vavuniya today to inspect displacement camps and hospitals that have been overwhelmed by the more than 100 000 civilians who fled the war zone over the past week.
The UN says nearly 6 500 civilians have been killed in the fighting over the past three months. Holmes said Saturday that the trapped civilians were suffering a ‘very high’ casualty rate, and from lack of food, clean water and medical supplies.
– Nampa-AP