Concerns Mounts in Sri Lanka About Civilian Casualties

[Joanne98]

Source: VOA


As Sri Lanka's army battles rebels to establish total control over the north and the coastline, concern is mounting about civilian casualties.

Diplomats and aid organizations say hundreds of thousands of people appear trapped in northern Sri Lanka, as the army encircles the remnants of the fighting force of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is expressing deep concern about the fate of civilians in the crossfire. He is calling on the rebels and the government to respect safety zones and civilian infrastructure.

In Colombo, U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss says there are few humanitarian workers in the area and it is difficult to ascertain the extent of what the international organization now sees as a humanitarian crisis.

"We have a population of 200,000 to 300,000 persons who are cutoff from the rest of Sri Lanka, surrounded by Sri Lankan government military forces," he said. "And, seeded among the population, and in and around them, there are the LTTE fighters who are under severe pressure from the Sri Lankan military and they're fighting a desperate battle for survival."

An internet web site sympathetic to the rebels claims as many as 300 civilians were killed Monday by army shelling inside a government-proclaimed no-fire zone.



Read more: http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-01-27-voa12.cfm

---

The genocide nobody's paying attention too. I wish the Gaza protestors would take this up.

[Joanne98]

1. Sri Lankan officials in the firing line

COLOMBO - As Sri Lanka's security forces make massive inroads against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a top United States constitutional lawyer may prove to be an impediment against the military's accomplishments if he triumphs in getting indictments against two of the island's very high-profile military officials, both US citizens who are spearheading the offensive against the Tamil Tigers.

If constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein, a former associate deputy attorney general, is successful in what could be termed as anything but a mundane task, Sri Lanka's controversial Defense

Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and army commander Sarath Fonseka will be the first US citizens to be tried for genocide.

Fein has over the past few weeks been preparing a 1,000-page model indictment against both US citizens for allegedly violating Section 1091 of the United States Criminal Code.

The model indictment is scheduled for publication within two weeks and will be presented to the US Congress, the Department of Justice and the State Department.

The lawyer represents Tamils Against Genocide, a non-profit organization based in the United States, whose mission is to obtain US or international indictments against the two US citizens or green card holders currently serving in the government of Sri Lanka for alleged complicity in genocide, crimes against humanity, or war crimes, including torture and extrajudicial killings, against Sri Lanka's civilian Tamil population.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KA28Df01.html