Aid groups pushed for access to Sri Lanka’s former battlefield to check on the fate of any wounded civilians stranded there, as the country celebrated a holiday yesterday to honor the military’s victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels.
The government has barred journalists and international aid workers from the war zone for months, allowing only the Red Cross to periodically send a boat to the area to deliver food aid and evacuate the wounded.
The Red Cross has appealed for access to the war zone to aid anyone still left there, but the government says it does not need assistance, said Paul Castella, the head of the Sri Lanka office of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
“Yes, we have concerns, yes we are asking for access,” he said. “We have no information from the ground to document these concerns.”
As the military encircled the rebels and pushed ahead with the final battle last week, government doctors reported about 1,000 wounded civilians were trapped in a makeshift hospital and the surrounding area with little food and no medical care.
Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said troops rescued more than 60,000 civilians caught in the fighting in the final days of the war. He said soldiers found several wounded people when they captured the area, but no one was in the hospital.
“There are no civilians still in that area. All of them have been evacuated,” Nanayakkara said.
Castella said 19 local Red Cross workers along with their families were missing.
“We don’t know where they are and, as you can imagine, we are extremely worried,” he said.
UN humanitarian chief John Holmes has also called for UN officials or the Red Cross to be allowed to go to the former battlefield to confirm that all civilians are out.
Aid groups complained access to those in displacement camps has been severely restricted since the weekend.
Meanwhile, Sri Lankans commemorated the victory over the rebels with a national holiday. The celebrations were relatively subdued after three days of dancing in the streets. Many people cooked pots of milk rice — a traditional celebratory treat — in the streets, handing out samples to passers-by.
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