about 13,500 civilians have been killed and 14,000 wounded

TO BE NOTED: From the NY Times:

"From Sandy Strip of Sri Lanka, Tales of Suffering as War Traps Thousands

Reuters

A Sri Lankan soldier on Friday looked over civilians who had fled the war zone in the northern part of the country controlled by Tamil rebels. As many as 100,000 civilians may be trapped there.

By THOMAS FULLER

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — In more peaceful times, the narrow, sandy strip of land that hugs the coast near the northeastern town of Mullaittivu might attract tourists to its Indian Ocean beaches.

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David Gray/Reuters

As a soldier looked on, smoke rose Friday from the combat zone near the town of Putumattlan, in northern Sri Lanka.

The New York Times

Wounded civilians are dying at a hospital in Vavuniya.

Now, as the country’s long-running civil war appears to be reaching its climax, a picture of desperation is emerging from the sliver of territory between a lagoon and the sea where rebels from the ethnic Tamil minority are making their last stand.

Stories of suffering have streamed out of the area along with the tens of thousands of civilians who were able to break through the front lines last week and straggle into overwhelmed hospitals and refugee camps.

Tim Pruchnic, an American surgeon working at a hospital in the northern town of Vavuniya, said in a telephone interview that many of his patients were so weak they were dying after operations that would not normally be life threatening.

After months in the combat zone, patients are exhausted, malnourished and dehydrated, said Dr. Pruchnic, who works with the aid group Doctors Without Borders. Another doctor who works with the aid group at the same hospital, Paul McMaster, said some of his patients were losing limbs to amputations because their injuries — often from shrapnel, gunshots and land mines — had gone untreated for too long and became infected.

Civilians have been trying for weeks and sometimes months to leave the ever-shrinking area of fighting between the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels in the north, but the rebels have been holding them as human shields, building earthen barriers that make it harder not only for soldiers to get in but also for civilians to get out, according to aid agencies and the Sri Lankan military. The rebels have also forced some civilians to take up arms, the United Nations says. The government, meanwhile, has ignored appeals from the United Nations, India, the United States and other nations for a cease-fire until all the civilians are out of the combat zone.

Last week, the government was able to explode one of the rebels’ barriers, allowing about 100,000 civilians to flee.

“Even in ordinary times a population of 100,000 would be a huge burden on the health system,” said Gordon Weiss, the United Nations spokesman in Colombo. “But these are people who have had three months with very little food, they’ve traveled across mine fields and endured months of shelling and small-arms fire. It’s no surprise that the hospitals are overwhelmed.”

Shortages of doctors and nurses are also growing severe, in part because of what Mr. Weiss described as bureaucratic “bottlenecks” in the approval process for visas of foreign aid workers.

Some of the civilians who have fled ended up in the hospital at Vavuniya, where doctors say the maximum capacity is normally 600 patients. Last week, 1,700 people were crowded into its wards. Dr. Pruchnic said many of the patients, including children, arrived without their families.

“There are kids here who have had amputations, their mother and father are gone — their whole family is missing,” he said. “Yet they can still smile. I’m amazed at their resilience.”

On Saturday, the Tigers said that tens of thousands of civilians faced “imminent” starvation, according to a Web site that serves as their voice, Tamilnet.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which evacuated hundred of wounded civilians by fishing boats used as ferries in recent days, has also warned of the lack of food and an “acute shortage of vital medical supplies” in the combat zone.

The government’s advance has been slowed somewhat by the rebels’ earthen barriers, according to Brig. Gen. Udaya Nanayakkara, a military spokesman. He said the military was now moving forward only several yards a day as troops cleared mines and booby traps. The rebels are equipped with at least one tank, artillery pieces, armor-plated vehicles, assault weapons and satellite phones, he said.

Conditions in the rebel-held territory are difficult to verify because journalists and aid workers have been barred from the combat zone.

The general also said the mingling of rebels among civilians had complicated the military’s advance.

Among the nearly 200,000 people who have escaped rebel-held territory since January, about 3,000 were determined to be fighters disguised as civilians, General Nanayakkara said. He estimates there are 500 fighters left in rebel-held territory.

“The moment we take all the trapped civilians out it’s just a matter of 48 hours to get rid of them,” General Nanayakkara said of the rebels.

Since late January, when rebel-held territory shrank significantly, about 13,500 civilians have been killed and 14,000 wounded, according to a United Nations tally. The United Nations estimates there are 50,000 to 100,000 civilians stuck on the sandy spit of land. The military says it is more like 15,000 people.

Whatever the number, the frailest among them may never make it out alive.

Patients arriving at Vavuniya hospital are usually young or middle-aged: Dr. Pruchnic says he has seen few elderly people.

“The old don’t seem to make it here,” he said. “There’s a few. But I think they’re mostly dying on the way.”

Sharon Otterman contributed reporting from New York."

The UN’s human rights chief, Navi Pillay, has suggested that both may be guilty of war crimes.

TO BE NOTED: From the Economist:

"Sri Lanka's war

Killing civilians

Apr 9th 2009 | COLOMBO
From Economist.com

A doctor describes a slaughter in Sri Lanka

AFP/AP

Get article background

OVER 60 refugees are reported to have been killed by shellfire in north-eastern Sri Lankan on Wednesday April 8th. They were among thousands trapped by fighting between the army and surviving Tamil Tiger rebels, who are making a last stand on Mullaitivu beach, a sandy-spit between the Indian Ocean and a long lagoon.

The beach, which is roughly 17km in length and 1.5km wide, has been designated as a “no-fire zone” by the army, which claims to have surrounded it. Yet the civilians encamped there—perhaps 150,000 in all, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)—have been regularly bombarded, for which each side blames the other. The UN’s human rights chief, Navi Pillay, has suggested that both may be guilty of war crimes.

The army says it has engaged in almost no fighting since April 5th, when it emerged victorious from a three-day battle outside the no-fire zone, where it killed 525 Tigers. An army spokesman says it has not used indirect fire in the region—including artillery and mortar rounds—for several weeks. According to a doctor working in a makeshift hospital in the no-fire zone, however, it saw unprecedentedly heavy shellfire and civilian casualties on Wednesday.

By phone from the war-zone, he said that 296 wounded refugees had been brought to the hospital, a converted school building, and that 47 had died there. Typically with “big lacerations in the abdomen, in the chest, very bad head injuries”, the wounded included 52 children under the age of 15. The doctor, who requested that his name not be published, said that the hospital, which has eight doctors and 20 nurses employed by the government to work in the Tigers’ formerly extensive fief, had been overwhelmed by this influx. Already, he said, a dire shortage of drugs had driven them to carry out surgery on people dosed with painkillers, but not anaesthetic. Over 100 of the newly wounded were therefore evacuated (along with 400 others) aboard small fishing boats to a ship manned offshore by the ICRC. The doctor said he had heard that at least three of these evacuees subsequently died.

Shortly after 7am, the doctor said he had seen the effect of the first bombardment of the day. He said five shells had landed, a few minutes and up to 30m apart, in an area thick with refugees: three of their jerry-built shelters, constructed of sticks and plastic sheeting, took direct hits. The doctor said 13 people, including a mother of four children and at least one child, were killed by the volley, and 55 were seriously wounded.

“It’s a very fearful situation,” he said. “Everywhere you look, people are dying, like hunted animals.” Because the government has barred journalists and most aid workers from the battlefield, it was not possible to verify his report. But the figures it contains are consistent with those quoted to the BBC by another doctor at the hospital, and with reports sent, from various sources, to foreign diplomats in Colombo. The ICRC has said that one of its workers was killed in the no-fire zone by shellfire on Wednesday.

The doctor said that in March nearly 2,800 wounded refugees were admitted to the hospital, of whom over 500 had died there. Many others, he said, had been killed and buried without reaching the hospital. These figures are broadly consistent with other estimates. Of 2,400 sick and wounded evacuated from Mullaitivu beach from January to mid-March, 1,900 underwent surgery for shrapnel and splinter wounds.

Though the government denies shelling the no-fire zone, it has admitted doing so to foreign diplomats, to return the Tigers’ fire, and only where it could ensure no civilian would be harmed. Given that artillery fire is said to be accurate with a 250m-margin for error, this may explain some of the casualties. But the government suggests it is the Tigers who are firing on the refugees, who they are certainly holding hostage, in an effort to smear the army and provoke international outrage and a ceasefire. For their part, the Tigers, who the army says are down to 200 hardened fighters, accuse it of killing the refugees.

According to the doctor on Mullativu beach, each bombardment provokes a clamour of refugees wanting to escape. Over 20,000 have done so in the past three weeks. But the doctor said that many are being deterred from trying because of the dangers of crossing a battle-field-and because of the “local police”, a possible euphemism for the Tigers. Contrary to official reports, the doctor said that sporadic fighting appeared to be continuing outside the no-fire zone."

"We will be able to finish this war soon."

In Sri Lanka, from Reuters:

1 of 1Full Size

By Ranga Sirilal

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan soldiers captured the last major town held by Tamil Tiger separatists on Sunday, moving a step closer to finishing off one of Asia's longest-running insurgencies, the army commander said.

The eastern port of Mullaittivu is one of the final targets of a military onslaught to end a 25-year war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels. The army had not set foot inside it since the Tigers seized it in 1996.

"After one month's fight we have totally liberated Mullaittivu town," Lieutenant-General Sarath Fonseka said in an address on state television. "We will be able to finish this war soon."

Fonseka said the LTTE-held area is down to 300 square km (186 square miles), cut from 15,000 square km (5,792 sq miles) when the war re-ignited in 2006.

The capture leaves the LTTE confined to a wedge of jungle in the northeast of the Indian Ocean island, with its remaining defenses and bases scattered in a handful of villages.

The 59th Division has been battling up the eastern coast toward Mullaittivu for a year and a month ago reached the edge of the fortified town, which served as a major LTTE operations base.

"We have destroyed large-scale earthen defenses and trenches. We have complete control of Mullaittivu and have destroyed the terrorists," Fonseka said.

The army has racked up a string of victories this month, including capturing the rebels' self-proclaimed capital of Kilinochchi and expelling them from the Jaffna Peninsula.

Aid agencies say about 230,000 civilians fleeing the fighting are trapped in the war zone. Rights groups and the government accuse the LTTE of keeping them as human shields.( A WAR CRIME )

At least 100( 100 ) civilians were killed in artillery exchanges last week, according to a top government official working in the Tiger-controlled area.

The army set up a 32-square-km safe area inside the war zone, but said the LTTE had moved its artillery and heavy weapons inside it.

The LTTE, on U.S., EU, and Indian terrorist lists after years of suicide bombings and assassinations of politicians and rival Tamil figures, could not be reached for comment.

On Saturday, the military said the Tigers had blown up a dam to flood land and slow a rapid army advance. Soldiers also found two facilities for making bombs and landmines, with 4,000 detonators and 150 kg (330 lb) of explosives.

It is difficult to get a clear picture from the war zone, since both sides block independent media from entering it.

The LTTE seized Mullaittivu, a strategic harbor, in 1996 in a massive attack that killed more than 1,000 soldiers. Navy boats have already cordoned off the sea around it, but it had been the last remaining route for the LTTE to bring in weapons.

The LTTE began fighting in earnest in 1983 and say they are the sole representatives of the Tamil minority, which complains of mistreatment by successive governments led by the Sinhalese ethnic majority since independence from Britain in 1948."

We need to see how the government moves forward from these victories.

"The conflict has killed more than 70,000 people."

A Sri Lanka report:

"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan forces captured the strategic Elephant Pass base from the Tamil Tiger rebels on Friday, ousting them from their last stronghold on the Jaffna Peninsula and boxing them into a shrinking pocket of land in the northeast.( THEY ARE IN TROUBLE. )

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The New York Times

The capture of the base gives the government nearly full control of the northern peninsula, the rebels’ cultural capital, for the first time since 2000. It also puts the country’s major north-south highway completely under its control for the first time in 23 years.

The rebels are now confined to a small area of jungle around their last remaining stronghold, Mullaittivu.

In a nationally televised address, President Mahinda Rajapaksa praised the victory. “Our soldiers by this evening have been able to totally liberate Elephant Pass” from the rebels, he said.

There was no comment from the rebels, also known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The government, which seized the rebels’ administrative capital, Kilinochchi, last week, has promised to crush the rebel group and end Sri Lanka’s 25-year-old civil war.

But in a reminder of the rebels’ ability to cause destruction even as they suffer conventional defeats, the rebels detonated a roadside bomb( THIS WILL BECOME THEIR STRATEGY AGAIN ) in the country’s east on Friday that killed three air force troops and four civilians, said a military spokesman, Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara.

The attack outside the eastern city of Trincomalee signaled a return to guerrilla tactics( YES ). The government captured the east from the rebels in 2007, but attacks in the area have increased in recent months.

On Friday, government forces marching from the north and south broke into Elephant Pass and fought heavy battles with the rebels, the military said. The base is on the isthmus connecting the northern Jaffna Peninsula with the rest of the island in the Indian Ocean.

Analysts said the guerrillas appeared to have withdrawn their artillery and heavy weaponry from the area and were sacrificing their bases on the peninsula to consolidate forces near Mullaittivu, where they will probably make a stand.

Human rights groups have warned that casualties among the hundreds of thousands of civilians living in the shrinking pocket of rebel territory were likely to mount as the government closed in on the insurgents.( THIS IS MY CONCERN )

The Tamil Tigers have been fighting since 1983 to create an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils, who have suffered decades of marginalization by governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority. The conflict has killed more than 70,000( 70,000) people.

Troops south of Jaffna were also fighting the rebels, pushing east from the Kilinochchi area, Brigadier Nanayakkara said. The troops found the bodies of seven insurgents from fighting Thursday, he said."

I would hope that the government reaches out to Tamils, to try and isolate the Tigers after this conflict winds down. Otherwise, Sri Lanka can expect a return of suicide bombings and terrorist attacks.

called on both sides ''to conduct their war in a way that the civilians are not affected or punished''

Checking in on Sri Lanka. From the NY Times:

"COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) -- Sri Lankan forces overran another village Monday and moved closer to seizing a strategic base from the Tamil Tigers, but concerns are mounting for the hundreds of thousands of civilians living in the rebels' shrinking territory( THIS IS CRUCIAL ).

The government has chased the rebels out of much of their de facto state in the north in recent months -- taking their administrative capital of Kilinochchi last week -- but the offensive is complicated by the presence of an estimated 300,000 civilians in rebel territory.

The rebels now occupy a slice of jungle slightly larger than the city of Los Angeles.

As civilians increasingly get in the way of the battle, it could become difficult for the government to fight on without causing an unacceptable loss of life, human rights activists and some Western diplomats said.( I AGREE )

The government says it has no intention of giving up its recent momentum but will do everything it can to avoid civilian casualties.

''We are taking the utmost precautionary measures,'' said defense spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella. He declined to outline what those precautions where.( BS )

Government troops on Monday captured the rebel-held town of Oddusudan, which sits at an important crossroads leading to the Tamil Tiger stronghold of Mullaittivu, according to military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara.

Troops also moved closer to capturing the Elephant Pass stronghold, a strategic chokepoint just south of the government-controlled Jaffna peninsula, the military said. Seizing Elephant Pass would cut off the rebels' heavily fortified front line on the peninsula from the rest of their remaining territory.

The rebels are fighting to create an independent homeland for minority Tamils, who have suffered decades of marginalization by governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority. Some analysts say this is the military's best chance ever of defeating the rebels and ending the 25-year-old civil war, which has killed more than 70,000( 70,000 ) people.( TRUE )

Mano Ganesan, an opposition lawmaker, called on both sides ''to conduct their war in a way that the civilians are not affected or punished'' and asked that a group of observers from all political parties be allowed in the war zone. ( PLEASE )

Last month, Human Rights Watch accused the rebels of preventing civilians from fleeing the area under their control. The New York-based group also accused the government of arbitrarily detaining and mistreating the estimated 1,000 civilians who fled across the front lines.

While the military has avoided large-scale civilian casualties in its latest offensive, reports of civilian deaths have grown in recent days.

The Tamil Tigers said in a statement that six civilians were killed and 20 injured in artillery attacks and air strikes in the Mullaittivu district Friday. On Sunday, artillery attacks wounded 14 more civilians, they said.

Independent confirmation of the casualties was not available because the government bars journalists from the war zone and from entering rebel territory.( BAD NEWS )

Despite the growing threat, there has been no mass movement of civilians out of the area.

Large-scale civilian casualties could spark pressure on Sri Lanka from neighboring India -- which has a large ethnic Tamil population of its own, said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Center for Policy Alternatives think tank.

''At the present moment (officials) are of the mood that, 'We've got them on the run let's finish it,''' he said. ''But they must be aware that 'finishing it' be done in a way that does not provoke outside intervention.''

We need to keep an eye on all these conflicts in order to ensure that the combatants are aware that War Crimes will not go unnoticed or unrecorded.

"It was the constant dream of all Sri Lankans, whether Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim, who are opposed to separatism, racism, and terrorism"

Has military force ended the war in Sri Lanka? From Reuters:

"Jan 2 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's military on Friday said it had seized Kilinochchi, which the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had claimed as capital of the nation they want to create for Sri Lankan Tamils.

With that, the military has struck a strategic and symbolic blow that shows it has made the most battlefield progress at any time since the war began in 1983( TRUE ) [ID:nSP417902]. That has analysts asking if the ground war could soon be over.

Here are some scenarios of what could happen next:

THE BATTLE HEADS EAST

With Kilinochchi in government hands, the Tigers now control a wedge-shaped piece of land in the northeast corner of the island and a heavily defended strip on the neck of the Jaffna Peninsula that soldiers can hit from both sides now. The only major town the Tigers still control is the Mullaittivu port in the east. Troops are heading towards there on all fronts to the west and south, trying to push the LTTE towards the ocean. Another unit of near division strength -- Task Force Five -- is soon to deploy, the military has said.

DOES MILITARY SUCCESS MEAN EARLY ELECTIONS?

With the LTTE losing ground and the military riding high, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has plenty of political support. That has prompted allies to call for an early parliamentary election to consolidate power and sidestep criticism of his government's handling of the $32 billion economy levelled by the main opposition United National Party. Dates are already set for polls for two provincial councils in February, which many political observers say will be a chance for Rajapaksa to test the waters and shore up support before a national election. Some were expecting Kilinochchi's fall to be the trigger for an early national poll, but advisers have said that is but one of many factors that figure in Rajapaksa's political calculations.

WHAT ABOUT THE ECONOMY?

As predicted, both the Colombo Stock Exchange .CSE and the sliding rupee currency <.LKR=> got a boost from Kilinochchi's capture. It remains to be seen how long that will last since both tend to move on their own fundamentals and have recorded some impressive performances in the course of the 25-year war. In December, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services cut Sri Lanka's sovereign rating by one level to B, five notches below investment grade, on declining foreign exchange reserves and a high fiscal deficit. Most analysts say a sovereign default is unlikely. That said, the IMF has warned that Sri Lanka's impressive economic growth could slow if it doesn't cut spending, stop taking expensive foreign loans and spend its foreign exchange to support the rupee. It has eased up its support for the rupee to conserve cash.

IS THAT A RISK TO RAJAPAKSA?

Not really, especially with popularity for his war effort so strong. Rajapaksa's mainly rural power base has been largely shielded from economic woes through his populist budgets and development projects. Rajapaksa is also counting on a flood of post-war reconstruction money to come in after fighting ends.

ARE THE TIGERS DOWN FOR THE COUNT?

Tiger leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran in his annual speech in November said the government was living in a "dreamland" if it thought it would win. But most analysts say the Tigers are on the defensive and losing strength. The diplomatic currency on which the Tigers had long traded -- that they are defending a minority -- suffered in December when Human Rights Watch accused them of mistreating and forcibly recruiting the Tamils they say they represent. Many analysts say Prabhakaran may order bombings or air raids in Colombo, but will not be able to reverse military gains as spectacularly as he did in the 1980s and 1990s. The military and analysts expect the Tigers to increasingly go underground as they lose turf, changing back into the guerrilla group they started as and away from the conventional force they have become. In a possible sign of things to come, a suspected rebel suicide bomber killed three airmen in Colombo hours after Kilinochchi fell.

INDIA: THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

Sri Lanka's giant neighbour has always loomed large in the war. Despite a lot of noise from ethnic Tamil politicians in southern India with decades of links to the LTTE, Rajapaksa and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have agreed Tamil political grievances must be addressed while the Tigers should be dealt with militarily. And since Islamist gunmen assaulted Mumbai last month, analysts say Singh is unlikely to give any quarter to a group his own government lists as a terrorist outfit despite renewed pressure for a ceasefire from Indian Tamil politicians. (Writing by Bryson Hull; Editing by Alex Richardson)"

I think that the Tigers might well become a guerrilla group again, but, since they are having to force Tamils to fight, they might not have the necessary support for an effective resistance movement, especially if the Sri Lankan government reaches out to Tamils. In any case, we have to hope the human rights situation improves for all concerned. We cannot condone the War Crimes committed by the Tigers, or by the government. Pressure should be put on the Sri Lankan government to address Tamil concerns, in order to end the war, defang the Tigers, and bring about peace and justice for all Sri Lankans.

More from Reuters:

"The LTTE started fighting the government in 1983. It says it is battling for the rights of ethnic Tamils in the face of mistreatment by successive governments led by the Sinhalese majority since Sri Lanka won independence from Britain in 1948.

Exactly a year ago, Rajapaksa's government formally scrapped an increasingly tattered six-year truce brokered by Norway, saying the rebels were using it as cover to regroup and re-arm.

The military had been closing in on Kilinochchi since September. Over the past month, it has been assaulting Tiger defences encircling the town and both sides claim to have inflicted ever higher death tolls on the other.

"It was the constant dream of all Sri Lankans, whether Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim, who are opposed to separatism, racism, and terrorism, and have always, sought peace, freedom and democracy," Rajapaksa said in a nationally televised address on Friday.

"Today our heroic troops have made that dream a reality. A short while ago, our brave and heroic troops have fully captured Kilinochchi that was considered the main bastion of the LTTE."

In Washington, State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said the Tamil Tigers had been "one of the most notorious and brutal terrorist organizations over the past 20 years" but he urged the government to address Tamil concerns.

"A peaceful dialogue is what is called for to resolve the differences and legitimate concerns of the Tamils," he said."

"There has to be a devolution package which goes beyond the stale token concessions which various Sri Lankan governments have offered"

Some wars never seem to end. Jonathan Steele in the Guardian:

"Behind a wall of censorship horrendous battles are under way in northern Sri Lanka. The details are unclear since no independent reporters have been allowed access, and both sides – the government army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam – give out bombastic and unverifiable casualty figures.

But through the fog of war a dreadful outline emerges. According to international aid agencies about a quarter of a million people ( 250,000 ) have been made homeless by conflict in the area which the Tigers once controlled behind officially agreed ceasefire lines. The government repudiated the ceasefire a year ago, and its army has made major advances towards the Tigers' political capital, Kilinochchi, as well as its military stronghold, Mullaitivu, on the north-east coast.

The government's boast of finishing the Tigers off in this high-casualty war has not yet been fulfilled. The army was bogged down for several weeks in monsoon rains in October and November, and in a typical battle on Monday the military admitted losing 25 soldiers even as they claimed to have killed 120 Tiger troops.

With its back to the jungle, the Tigers are stepping up pressure on civilians to defend their dwindling area of control, according to a Human Rights Watch report this week. "Trapped in the LTTE's iron fist, ordinary Tamils are forcibly recruited as fighters and forced to engage in dangerous labour near the front lines" ( THIS SEEMS TO BE A WORLDWIDE PRACTICE ), Brad Adams, HRW's Asia director said on Monday. "It has recently gone beyond its longstanding 'one person per family' forced recruitment policy and now sometimes requires two or more family members to join its ranks. The LTTE claims to be fighting for the Tamil people, but it is responsible for much of the suffering of civilians" ( FIGHTING FOR THE PEOPLE. THEY JUST WANT PEACE ).

The government, meanwhile, urges civilians to flee the Tiger areas and houses them in so-called welfare camps, which independent sources describe as detention camps ( UNREAL ). There government-paid informers wearing masks walk through the ranks of the displaced, identifying people as alleged Tiger supporters who are promptly detained ( VERY DECENT ).

Caught in the middle politically, civilians are also suffering massive privation. Since September, all foreign aid workers with the exception of the International Committee of the Red Cross have been barred from Tiger areas. The government has only let a handful of food convoys in ( THEIR STARVATION IS NECESSARY FOR THEIR GETTING A BETTER LIFE, APPARENTLY ).

The government's military advance has changed the political balance in Colombo. A rising tide of Sinhalese chauvinism has led the army commander to claim the island belongs to the Sinhalese Buddhist majority, while leading members of the political party founded by Buddhist monks describe all non-Sinhalese as descendants of visitors. The long-accepted consensus that Sri Lanka is a multi-ethnic home for several communities – Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Christian, is becoming politically incorrect in the minds of the country's current power holders( SECTARIANISM ON THE RISE ). The United National Party, the official opposition that brokered the 2002 ceasefire which now lies in tatters, has succumbed to the dangerous new mood. It, too, supports the government's goal of "military victory".

Were it to be achieved, Sri Lanka's problems would not be solved. The Tigers have always turned to suicide bombings ( I DON"T THINK THAT RELIGION FIGURES IN HERE ) and other atrocities in times of trouble. Forcing them out of their areas of territorial control will not produce peace. It will only condemn Sri Lanka's towns and villages to terrorist reprisals. Moderate Tamils do not support the Tiger's methods but they share the Tiger view that the island's current constitution does not offer fairness to non-Sinhalese populations. There has to be a devolution package which goes beyond the stale token concessions which various Sri Lankan governments have offered over the past two decades

Ironically, the only constructive proposals made since the crisis started came from the LTTE in 2003. Their suggested Internal Self-Governing Authority is over-ambitious but it has never been matched by a detailed blueprint from the government side. Until the government comes up with a realistic offer, which will have to involve elements of a federation, there will be no cause for celebration and no chance of compromise and peace."

This war needs to end before there is no population left. Realistically, there does seem to need to be a compromise, with the Tamil areas having some sort of self-determination.