Sri Lankan suffering "unbearable"

Published: 3 May 2009

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (Zenit.org): In a situation that Caritas has dubbed "unbearable", tens of thousands of Sri Lankan civilians - including many children - face death as they continue trapped between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels.

In a statement on April 21, the international Caritas organisation appealed for almost $2.5 million to provide emergency assistance to the victims.

The United Nations estimates that more than 4500 civilians have been killed in the past three months.

The civilians are trapped in the last corner held by the rebel Tamil Tigers as 25 years of conflict to gain a separate Tamil nation has reached its bloody head.

The Sri Lankan Government has the Tigers holed into just a few square kilometres, part of which has been designated a "safe zone" for the civilians. But both the Government and the rebels accuse the other side of ignoring the civilians' safety.

The rebels asserted, for example, that more than 1000 civilians died on April 20 in a Government raid.

Caritas affirmed that children suffered the most in Sri Lanka's conflict in Vanni.

Caritas Sri Lanka director Fr Damian Fernando said the extent of human suffering there was unbearable.

"The international community must wake up to the suffering we're witnessing in Sri Lanka," he said.

"We call on the United Nations to put Sri Lanka on top of its agenda and to use every means to press the warring parties to seek an end to the fighting through negotiation."