sri lanka war zone update

Near Sri Lanka's War Zone, Wounded Civilians Struggle to Cope

Associated Press

By THOMAS FULLER

Published: February 12, 2009

TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka — The ravages of Sri Lanka’s civil war were on full display on Thursday in the crowded wards of the municipal hospital in this eastern port city, 40 miles from the front line. Catholic nuns with bullet and shrapnel wounds, infants as young as a week old, and men with amputated legs were arrayed on beds or lay on the floor. Thomas Fuller/I.H.T.

The names of the wounded were listed in Trincomalee.

A total of 368 injured civilians were being treated in the hospital, and more were on the way. A boatload of 160 patients chartered by the Red Cross was scheduled to dock here late on Thursday.

“We don’t know what happened to our family,” said Mohan Raj, 22, whose arm was shattered by shelling on Feb. 8. “I don’t know who attacked us,” he said. His mother and two siblings disappeared after a loud explosion, he said. His father stood at his bedside on the verge of tears.

The Sri Lankan government has barred reporters and most foreigners from the conflict zone, so the accounts of the injured here in government-controlled territory provided a rare glimpse into the predicament of at least 100,000 civilians trapped behind the front lines.

After intense fighting over the past several weeks, government troops have cornered separatist rebels from the minority Tamil ethnic group on a narrow strip of land in the northeastern corner of the country.

S. G. Muhunthan, chairman of the Trincomalee municipal council, estimated that as many as 350,000 civilians could be trapped in the war zone. “They have been squeezed by both sides,” he said. Human rights organizations put the number at around 200,000; the government says the figure is half that.

Mr. Muhunthan is bracing for an influx of wounded civilians.

“A lot more people are expected to come,” he said. “We can’t say how many. But a lot.”

Crossing over to government-controlled territory exposes civilians to gunfire and shelling. The jungles are mined in many areas; on Monday, at least eight civilians seeking to reach the government side were killed when a woman exploded her bomb-laden vest at a checkpoint.

Patients said the Tamil Tigers, who are formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, tried to bar civilians from leaving the war zone. That is consistent with United Nations accusations that the Tamil Tigers have refused to let some of its staff members leave the conflict area.

People here appeared to have wounds inflicted by both the government and the Tigers...

Full text:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/world/asia/13lanka.html?ref=asia