[OneWorld.net]

In a designated safe zone in northern Sri Lanka, weekend fighting has put civilians back in the war zone. A new “safe zone” has provided some respite for tens of thousands of local residents, reports the United Nations, but that area also experienced some fighting in the past several days. “The Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) should take immediate steps to allow thousands of civilians trapped in a shrinking conflict zone safe passage and to ensure that they receive desperately needed humanitarian aid,” says international rights monitor Human Rights Watch.

[Full Story]

[The Observer]

Doctors say wounded Sri Lankan civilians are dying for want of proper medical treatment as they lie trapped in a makeshift hospital in the last rebel-held pocket in the north-east of the island. This weekend, hundreds of injured civilians poured in to the improvised medical facility in Putumattalan village, which has been repeatedly targeted by artillery. Earlier in the week 16 patients were killed in shelling. Both government forces and Tamil Tiger separatists have been accused of war crimes during the conflict, although confirmation is impossible because independent journalists are banned from the conflict zone.

[Full Story]

[Times Online]

Sri Lanka was accused yesterday of planning concentration camps to hold 200,000 ethnic Tamil refugees from its northeastern conflict zone for up to three years — and seeking funding for the project from Britain.

The Sri Lankan Government says that it will open five “welfare villages” to house Tamils fleeing the 67 sq mile patch of jungle where the army has pinned down the Tamil Tiger rebels.

[Full Story]

[The Sunday Times]

MORE than 250,000 terrified Tamil men, women and children were trapped between rebel Tamil forces and the army in no man’s land in northern Sri Lanka last night as the 25-year civil war appeared to be nearing a violent conclusion. A 48-hour ceasefire was due to end after the government promised to eliminate terrorism once and for all. Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan president, vowed that there would be no let-up in the army’s offensive. The International Committee of the Red Cross said a humanitarian crisis was unfolding and described horrific conditions in the conflict zone… Although the government has issued statements saying that it will not injure civilians, I know how hollow they sound to those caught up in the fighting because I have encountered the Sri Lankan army.

[Full Story]

[AFP]

Red Cross officials were negotiating Saturday to evacuate more wounded from the conflict zone in Sri Lanka’s embattled north as the island’s military kept up its push to crush Tamil separatist rebels. “We are negotiating with both parties (the government and the rebels) to the conflict to ensure safe passage for many more patients that need urgent medical attention,” ICRC spokeswoman Sarasi Wijeratne told AFP. She would not say how many patients “critically wounded” in the conflict and others suffering from heart ailments and other conditions might be brought out of Puthukkudiriruppu which lies behind LTTE front lines in Mullaittivu district.

[Full Story]

[HRW]
The Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) should take immediate steps to allow thousands of civilians trapped in a shrinking conflict zone safe passage and to ensure that they receive desperately needed humanitarian aid, Human Rights Watch said today. Intense fighting between the Sri Lankan army and the separatist LTTE has caught an estimated 250,000 civilians in deadly crossfire, and in the past week civilian casualties have risen dramatically.

[Full Story]