Tamil Tigers nearly completely encircled

The Toronto Star
May 15, 2009

Sri Lankan forces battled recently in an attempt to take complete control of the country's coastline. Their efforts were an attempt to surround the retreating Tamil Tigers in a final push to destroy the rebel terrorist group and end the country's civil war, the military said. Throughout the war zone, hundreds of desperate refugees fled. Meanwhile, a top UN official set out for the war zone on a mission to safeguard the lives of the tens of thousands of civilians that are still trapped in the middle of the heavy shelling. The government has cornered the rebels and civilians in a four-square-kilometre strip of northeastern Sri Lanka coastline. Government troops have surrounded rebel forces in an attempt to sever the rebels' access to the coastline and surround them on all sides. Over 1,800 civilians have managed to flee the rebel-held territory joining 3,700 others who escaped across a lagoon the previous day. The rebels allegedly fired on the fleeing civilians killing 4 and wounding 14, according to government reports. Approximately 200,000 civilians have escaped the war zone. In an attempt to end the bloodshed, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has dispatched his chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, to Sri Lanka with the aim of bringing the conflict to a peaceful conclusion.

In my opinion, it remains impossible to understand the respective role of the government forces and rebel troops in the dehumanized Sri Lankan war zone. The government's expulsion of unbiased observers and journalists from the country has made it difficult for the world to trust their motives and desire to prevent further humanitarian loss of life. According to reports in the international newspaper The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/25/sri-lanka-tamil-tigers-rebels-children), a UN deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said that the humanitarian situation "continues to be critical, civilian casualties have been tragically high and their suffering horrendous". Okabe and other UN officials have demanded that observers and humanitarian aid groups be allowed to reenter the war zone in order to prevent further unnecessary bloodshed. The Guardian also claimed that the pro-Tamil group War Without Witness reported more than 26,184 Tamils unaccounted for. This is truly a staggering figure and one that is sure to increase unless observers and UN officials are allowed to implement humanitarian aid in the poorly serviced warzone. This tragic story underscores what many pointed out about the humanitarian crisis on the Gaza Strip. The world truly pays attention when oil and money concerns that affect the west are at stake. In Darfur, Congo, and Sri Lanka, we as a Western Society seem more disengaged, simply because these actions do not affect us directly, either in terms of resources or from a financial perspective. Although this may seem like a cynical viewpoint, it is certainly one held by many prominent humanitarian leaders including the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon.