[UN News Centre]

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today reiterated his strong concerns over “unacceptably high” civilian casualties in the conflict between the Sri Lankan Government and Tamil rebels, while rejecting in the strongest terms any figure attributed to the United Nations. “I categorically reject – repeat, categorically – any suggestion that the United Nations has deliberately under-estimated any figures,” the Secretary-General underscored. “Let me also say, whatever the total, the casualties in the conflict were unacceptably high – as I have also said repeatedly,” he added.

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[ BBC ]

Sri Lanka has dismissed calls for an independent inquiry into claims of human rights abuses by the military, saying its own courts will investigate. Foreign minister Rohita Bogollagama said the claims were being used to boost accusations of genocide against the country’s Tamil minority. Aid agencies and the United Nations have called for an inquiry. The exact number of civilians killed in the final weeks of the long-running war has not been established, but one report put it as high as 20,000.

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[ UN News Centre ]

The United Nations, along with dozens of partner agencies, are working to improve basic conditions in camps housing people who fled the recently-ended conflict in northern Sri Lanka, it was announced today. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that since the arrival of the last of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) at the camps, relief workers have been working to ease pressure on overcrowded sites, construct more latrines and improve water supply to meet international standards. Other priorities include reuniting families and improving freedom of movement in the camps.

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[ Reuters ]

The United Nations’ refugee chief called on Tuesday for an international investigation to determine if Sri Lankan government forces and Tamil rebels had committed war crimes. Ensuring accountability for abuses committed in the recent fighting was important for the island nation’s national reconciliation, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said.

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[ CNN ]

The United Nations humanitarian chief Wednesday criticized a two-day pause in the fighting between the Sri Lankan army and Tamil Tiger rebels as “inadequate.” John Holmes, the under secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, told reporters that the 48-hour break in hostilities was not sufficient, even as fighting resumed in the northeast of the country. The brief cessation of hostilities was announced by the Sri Lankan government on April 12 and allowed the U.N. and its partners to bring in necessary aid, said Holmes. He said he would have liked a “proper humanitarian pause” that lasted longer than two days, but hoped the break allowed for some progress to occur.

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[ VoA ]

The United Nations estimates that trapped with the rebels are over 100,000 civilians who are taking refuge in the no-fire zone. According to the U.N., the no-fire area is being shelled by the Sri Lankan military, and the rebels are firing back. Human Rights Watch, a New York-based non-governmental human rights advocacy organization, says that the no-fire zone is so densely packed with civilians and remnants of the LTTE that any shooting or shelling must inevitably cause casualties. “Sri Lanka’s so-called ‘no-fire zone’ is now one of the most dangerous places in the world,” said Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch Asia director.

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[Inner City Press]

For two weeks, Inner City Press has asked at the UN whether international aid funds will be used for detention camps in which those fleeing the conflict zone in Sri Lanka will be detained, until the end of 2009 or longer. Holmes on Monday confirmed that the UN has “offered to assist transit camps” or “semi-permanent camps,” and as to funding as so far “make no links between the two.” He said that in the long run, the UN would be hard pressed to fund camps that violated international standards. But he said the UN wouldn’t want to “punish those in the camps.” So would the UN just keep on paying, for detention camps?

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[AFP]

Tens of thousands of Sri Lankan civilians face “great danger” after being caught in fighting between Tamil rebels and the advancing military, a senior UN diplomat warned on Friday. “Estimates vary of the number of civilians trapped, from 70,000 according to the government, through around 200,000 according to UN estimates, up to 300,000 or more according to Tamil groups,” said UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes told Security Council members. The civilians were stuck in a no-man’s land spanning around 14 square kilometers (five square miles), as expectations grew that government forces would move in on Tamil positions in short order.

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[Reuters]

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Monday for a “suspension in fighting” between the Sri Lanka government and Tamil Tiger separatists to allow civilians to escape. “There is an urgent need to bring this conflict to an end without any further unnecessary loss of civilian life and destruction of Sri Lankan society,” Ban told reporters. “The U.N. deplores the increasing casualties among civilians trapped in the intense fighting … and would strongly support a suspension in fighting for the purpose of allowing safe passage of (the) civilian population trying to flee the conflict,” Ban said.

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[Norwegian People's Aid]

In an open letter to president Mahinda Rajapaska the Cluster Munition Coalition urges Sri Lanka to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions…As you know some recent media coverage of the conflict between Sri Lankan armed forces and the LTTE focused on erroneous allegations of cluster munition use. As you are no doubt aware, the United Nations spokesperson Gordon Weiss issued a corrective to Amnesty International on 6 February noting that UN staff had: “… confused the explosion of cluster munitions with air-burst fragmentation munitions, which deliver shrapnel over a wide area and which have a similar loud explosive report, followed by many smaller reports.” This is consistent with analysis by weapons experts of ordnance photographed in the conflict region, identified as OFAB airburst fragmentation shells.

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