Sri Lanka’s president Rajapaksa is in no mood to halt his army’s final assault despite the dire condition of hundreds of Tamil civilians trapped in the war zone.
Scenting victory after twenty five long years, Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa is in no mood to halt his army’s final assault despite the dire condition of hundreds of Tamil civilians trapped in the war zone.
Rajapaksa has refused to allow any interference in the war plans despite the entire international community including India, US, Britain and the EU calling for a halt to the fighting to get the civilians out of harms way. Colombo believes that it cannot risk another halt to the fighting which may soon be over. But the question the rest of the world wants to know is at what cost. No one supports the LTTE but people are helplessly trapped in the area.
National Security Adviser MKNarayanan and foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon flew to Colombo on Friday with a message from Manmohan Singh to stop military action for the sake of Tamil civilians. However, the visit has not made any difference to Rajapaksa who has determinedly gone ahead with his plans. The US is backing Indian efforts according to reports. But from New Delhi there is no indication that it has any plans, apart from appealing to the President. “We support Indian efforts to stop the fighting,” US state department spokesman Robert Wood said.
The US was ‘routinely in discussions with Lanka’ and in touch with India. But “at this point” they were not sending any officials to Colombo. “We remain extremely concerned for the safety of the remaining civilians in the no-fire zone,” he said.
The international community should be prepared to play a role to end the fighting, Wood said. The US supported UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s decision to send a UN humanitarian team to the no-fire zone. His envoy Vijay Nambiar had met President Mahinda Rajapaksa last week and worked out a plan to allow a team into the no fire zone.
Colombo is now appealing to the international community for aid to rehabilitate the refugees who are gathered in camps in government controlled areas. Food, medicines, clothes and health checks are needed desperately in these areas.
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