Reuters AlertNet Full site
Homepage | Newsdesk | NGO Latest | Crisis briefings | Country profiles | MediaWatch | Jobs | Alerting | Login

NEWSDESK

SRI LANKA: Civilian death toll reaching "appalling levels"
18 Feb 2008 11:30:22 GMT
 Source: IRIN

Background

•  Sri Lanka conflict

MORE >>
COLOMBO, 18 February 2008 (IRIN) - The first six weeks of this year have been some of the deadliest for civilians since the fighting between Sri Lankan government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) intensified in December 2005.

More than 180 civilians were killed and almost 270 injured in attacks on buses, at the country's busiest railway station in the capital Colombo and elsewhere during the first 42 days of 2008, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a 13 February statement.

"The number of civilians affected by the violence throughout the country, either by being directly targeted or as bystanders, has reached appalling levels," Toon Vandenhove, ICRC head of delegation in Sri Lanka, said. "Sadly, many of the victims have been children on their way to or from school."

The worst attacks have been those targeting civilian buses, with at least 70 killed since 16 January, when the Sri Lankan government pulled out of the ceasefire agreement (CFA) of 2002. Three attacks took place in southern and central areas under government control while one occurred in Tamil Tiger-controlled areas in Mannar District in the northwest.

Truce collapse

Observers, including the Colombo-based think-tank, Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), report that the rise in civilian casualties is directly linked to the collapse of the five-year truce.

"Attacks on helpless civilians have increased following the intensification of hostilities in the new year and after the abrogation of the Ceasefire Agreement and the removal of the presence on the ground of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), in particular," the CPA stated on 13 February.

The first of the recent deadly attacks targeting civilians coincided with the CFA being terminated by the government. Twenty-seven civilians were killed in a Claymore mine attack on a bus in southeastern Buttala town, 250km southeast of Colombo.

Attacks in urban areas have also increased, resulting in higher numbers of civilian casualties, an ICRC official in Colombo told IRIN.

Hundreds of combatants have also been killed: according to the Ministry of Defence, 1,238 Tamil Tigers and 105 government forces died in the first six weeks of this year.

Calls to minimise civilian suffering

With the rise in civilian deaths, humanitarian agencies have increasingly called for all parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law.

"CPA wishes to stress that it is incumbent on all combatants to respect the principles and standards of international humanitarian and human rights laws and norms," the CPA stated. It called on both the government and the Tigers to pledge that non-combatants would be spared in the fighting.

"Not enough is being done to ensure that civilian suffering and misery is minimised by both sides," Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, the executive director of CPA, told IRIN. "There are international standards pertaining to this and the two sides need to publicly commit to them and to demonstrate that commitment in deed."

ap/bj/mw

© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org


AlertNet news is provided by
Email this article       Send comments

Emergencies

•  Sri Lanka conflict

MORE >>

NGO latest

•  Malteser International Lent Campaign 2008 - Preventing germs with sand and gravel
Malteser International - Germany

•  People In Need's Training Program in Sri Lanka Helps Tens to Get Job in Project Management
PIN - Czech Republic

•  Sri Lanka: Civilians bear the brunt of surge in violence
ICRC - Switzerland

•  Malteser International Lent Campaign 2008: 40 Euros for Sri Lanka
Malteser International - Germany

•  ACT: Three years after tsunami, Sri Lanka rebuilds amid worsening war
ACT - Switzerland

MORE >>

Latest news

•  SRI LANKA: Civilian death toll reaching "appalling levels"

•  Sri Lanka says 56 killed in fighting in north

•  SRI LANKA: War-affected forest community gets new lease of life

•  Sri Lanka says jets attack northern rebel base

•  S.Lanka says jets destroy rebel naval training base in north

MORE >>

IRIN news

Related articles

Breaking stories
Sri Lanka says jets attack northern rebel base (1 minute ago)

S.Lanka says jets destroy rebel naval training base in north (1 minute ago)

AlertNet insight
Is the world failing a generation of child soldiers? (1 minute ago)

Aid agency news feed
Malteser International Lent Campaign 2008 - Preventing germs with sand and gravel (1 minute ago)

Blogs
In 2008, Sri Lanka's main hope for peace lies with its people (1 minute ago)

Maps
MAP: Global flood locations (Jan 24,2008) (1 minute ago)


Country information

Briefings
Sri Lanka conflict - [Who works where]

Facts & figures
Sri Lanka
Statistics graphs
Human development index ranking (2005)
Chart for Human development index ranking
View more stats

Del.icio.us Del.icio.us  |   Digg Digg  |   NewsVine NewsVine  |   Reddit Reddit   
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-02-04T083854Z_01_COL07_RTRIDSP_2_SRILANKA_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/COL07.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-02-04T081725Z_01_COL01_RTRIDSP_2_SRILANKA_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/COL01.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-02-02T074424Z_01_COL06_RTRIDSP_2_SRILANKA_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/COL06.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-01-30T171217Z_01_MAN102_RTRIDSP_2_SRILANKA-ATTACK_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/MAN102.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-01-30T171118Z_01_MAN101_RTRIDSP_2_SRILANKA-ATTACK_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/MAN101.htm

Members of the military release balloons during the country's 60th National Day ceremony in Colombo, February 4, 2008. With a parade of tanks, troops and rocket launchers, Sri Lanka on Monday ...


More pictures | Galleries
Disclaimers |  Copyright |  Privacy |  Contact Us |  Feedback |  About Us |  RSS XML

Last updated:Mon Feb 18 11:35:00 2008