Ban sends Nambiar to Colombo to seek protection of Tamils

Ban sends Nambiar to Colombo to seek protection of Tamils

Dharam Shourie

United Nations, May 15 (PTI) Concerned over the plight
of Tamils trapped in the fighting between Sri Lankan forces
and the LTTE, UN chief Ban Ki-moon has despatched his Chef de
Cabinet Vijay Nambiar to Colombo to seek protection of
civilians and help resolve the humanitarian situation there.

During his telephonic conversation with Sri Lankan
President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Ban reiterated his concerns about
the protection of civilians as fighting continues between
government forces and the LTTE, UN spokesperson Marie Okabe
told reporters.

Nambiar, a former Indian diplomat, will meet top Sri
Lankan officials and discuss ways to rescue tens of thousands
of trapped civilians in no-fire zone and to provide
humanitarian assistance to them.

"As you will recall, the Secretary-General urged the
Government of Sri Lanka to explore all possible options to
bring the conflict to an end without further bloodshed and to
make public the terms under which that can be achieved without
further loss of civilian life," she said.

"He urged the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to give
sober and positive consideration of those terms."

Members of the Security Council on Wednesday expressed
grave concern over the worsening crisis in northern Sri Lanka,
in particular the reports of hundreds of civilian casualties
in recent days.

They reiterated their support for the personal
involvement of the Secretary-General, and urged the Government
to extend full cooperation to the UN to resolve the
humanitarian crisis.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs estimates that over 50,000 people remain in the
conflict zone, while more than 198,000 people have managed to
leave and crossed to Government-controlled areas. Of those,
nearly 196,000 people are accommodated in temporary,
overcrowded camps.

The UN spokesman in Sri Lanka, Gordon Weiss, said
conditions inside the camps are still "miserable," owing to
overcrowding and poor hygiene conditions. In addition, "they
are dealing with an extremely fragile population who have been
through a terrible time certainly an intensely terrible time
for the past three months,".

Aid agencies, including the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees, have constructed 8,000 shelters and erected more
than 9,000 tents to accommodate the new arrivals in the
districts of Vavuniya, Jaffna and Trincomalee. They are also
carrying out regular distribution of non-food items and
monitoring at the sites.

Earlier on Friday, two ships of the Red Cross carrying
25 tons and 500 tons respectively of mixed food commodities
were unable to discharge cargo in the conflict zone due to
continuous heavy fighting. PTI DS
SAK
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