[Reuters]

Sri Lanka’s minority Tamils say President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s post-war development and infrastructure projects in the former war zone in the island’s north have yet to address their real concerns and have not excluded their participation.

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[Reuters]

Up to 85,000 civilians trapped in northeastern Sri Lanka could flee the war zone in coming weeks as the army closes in on rebel-held territory, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday. The Sri Lankan government has allocated 300 acres of land where the UNHCR can receive up to 42,000 people by the end of next week, spokesman William Spindler said, citing the need to double the space to accommodate uprooted people in the region.

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[AP]

Devi Segaram kept on the run for two years, forced to move time and again to stay ahead of the civil war sweeping across northern Sri Lanka. Then there was nowhere left to shelter. So, two weeks ago, the teacher and her daughter joined hundreds of other ethnic Tamils to make a dash for safety just before dawn, sprinting across open fields and braving rebel gunfire to reach government lines. They joined more than 30,000 other civilians who have fled the war zone and are now living in camps, penned in by razor wire and watched over by soldiers of the Sinhalese-dominated government.

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[Los Angeles Times]

The number of civilian deaths in Sri Lanka has risen sharply in the last month, Human Rights Watch said Friday, calling on both sides in the protracted civil war to stop firing at civilians or shelling areas where they are concentrated. The government has been battling the Tamil Tiger rebel group, which wants a homeland for the Tamil minority, for the last 25 years. In recent weeks the army has stepped up its offensive, boxing in the rebels in a smaller area in the north. But by some estimates, up to 100,000 civilians are trapped in the war zone, with both sides unwilling to halt their fire and let them flee.

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[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.

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[Save the Children]

Save the Children has begun delivering life-saving aid to some of the thousands of civilians who have been able to flee the war zone in northern Sri Lanka. Nearly 28,000 people - many of whom have lost everything - have arrived in the district of Vavuniya, approximately 100km south of the fighting, in the past few days and are completely dependent on aid from the Sri Lankan authorities, the UN and non-governmental organisations. Thousands more people are expected to arrive in the coming weeks. Save the Children, in collaboration with the government and other agencies, has already given thousands of children and their families clothes, bedding, hygiene kits including soap and toothbrushes and other basic items.

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[The Independent]

All but hidden from view of the outside world, a bitter and savage war being waged in the north of Sri Lanka is creating a humanitarian crisis in which hundreds of thousands of civilians are at risk. In what may be the final chapters of one of the world’s longest-running civil wars, Sri Lankan troops say they are close to crushing the remnants of the once-potent Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Yet the military operation comes at a high price for civilians. Aid groups and officials say that dozens of civilians trapped in the war zone are being killed and wounded every day.

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[Reuters]

More than 1,400 civilians poured out of Sri Lanka’s war zone on Sunday, bringing the total in the last four days to nearly 14,000 as soldiers try to deal a death blow to the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, the military said. The rate of civilians trapped in fighting between the military and the cornered Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has picked up sharply this week, signalling the onset of faster military operations to wipe out the guerrillas. Combat raged at numerous locations in the 175 sq km (67 sq mile) battle zone, killing at least 11 guerrillas in a series of attacks and counter-attacks on Saturday, the military said.

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[AP]

Rare images of suffering civilians trapped in Sri Lanka’s war zone emerged Monday: Dead parents still cradling their children. A teenage boy with no arms crying in despair. A severely crowded hospital with many patients lying on mats under already full beds. The photographs and video footage of scores of dead and wounded, which were handed to The Associated Press by independent observers traveling in the war zone, are a glimpse of the some 250,000 civilians trapped in the shrinking jungle battle zone as Sri Lanka tries to finally crush the Tamil Tigers after a 25-year war.

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[Reuters]

A U.N. convoy carrying hundreds of people wounded in shelling between Tamil Tiger rebels and the Sri Lankan military left the war zone on Thursday after being held back two days ago, the United Nations said. “The convoy just crossed the frontline with hundreds of the civilians wounded by the fighting, including 50 critically wounded children, who are being moved to a Ministry of Health hospital,” U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss said. Sri Lankan troops energised by a series of major victories have cornered the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a shrinking piece of jungle and are fighting to finish one of Asia’s longest-running wars.

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