More than 900 civilians left the Tamil rebel-controlled areas in northern Sri Lanka over the weekend as fierce fighting continued between government troops and the rebels, military officials said yesterday.
A group of civilians had left on their own while others were helped by the International Committee of the Red Cross to leave the Mullaitivu area, 395km northeast of the capital by sea.
Military officials said 423 civilians had traveled on Saturday by the ship Green Ocean to reach the port city of Trincomalee, 60km south of where the fighting was continuing.
A group of 592 civilians including children and women who had left the rebel controlled areas reached a military forward defense line on Saturday and later moved to a camp for internally displaced persons.
Meanwhile, all surgeries have stopped at a makeshift hospital in the war zone because of a lack of basic supplies such as anesthetic and blood bags, the top government health official there said yesterday.
Dr. Thurairaja Varatharajah said the situation was so bad that bed sheets were being used for bandages, while sticks from palm trees were being used to brace fractured limbs.
“We don’t have bandages or gauze, we tear up bed sheets to bind the wounds and use palm sticks to support fractures. We are in need of a quick supply,” Varatharajah said.
The fate of tens of thousands of civilians caught in the war zone has become a matter of international concern.
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay warned on Friday that civilian casualties could reach “catastrophic” proportions if the two sides do not suspend fighting.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
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