Sri Lanka Sends in Food Aid

The Sri Lanka government is sending in much needed food and medical supplies for civilians trapped by fighting between its troops and the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Here's more.


STORY:

This is now one of Asia's longest-running wars. But Sri Lankan troops now have the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cornered in a tiny patch of jungle. And they are battling to finish off a separatist rebellion that has raged off and on since 1983.

The government has accused the rebels of firing artillery from the original no-fire zone. This is forcing people out of it towards the coast.m

Aid agencies say people in the war zone lack medicine and face dwindling food supplies. They estimate around 200,000 are trapped here.

But the government, whose shipment includes items such as milk powder, sugar and flour
puts the number at closer to sixty thousand.

[Ranjith Silva, Government Representative]:
"These food items have been prepared by the government to be sent to the people being held in Mullaittivu through the Red Cross.This ship will leave in a little while. We are sending these food items at the government's expense."

On Monday, the Red Cross ferried out just over four hundred who were in the no-fire zone. Many were sick or wounded.

It was the third evacuation from here in a week.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• ntd
• sri lanka
• tamil tiger rebels
• conflict
• human rights

[tamildeztiny]

tamil kill tamils

ltte launched indiscriminate artillery barrage into the newly announced 'safety zone' killing at least 108 civilians and causing injuries to more than 200, according to initial details from the medical sources in the area. Every shell that hit the area seemed to have caused casualties,said a doctor at the makeshift hospital at Maaththa'lan.More than 100,000 people have been forced into a plain and narrow strip along the coast, north of Mullaiththeevu town,without potable water