Germany Calls for Aid to Refugees Caught in Sri Lankan Conflict

By pearlaction | January 22, 2009 |

[DPA] German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called Thursday, Jan. 22, for humanitarian assistance to be delivered to civilians cut off by government and rebel clashes in the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Steinmeier expressed concern for more than 300,000 refugees on a coastal 30-kilometer strip of land, in the area held by the Liberation Tigers…

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Sri Lanka: continuing conflict sparks UN concern over fate of children

By pearlaction | January 21, 2009 |

[UN News Centre] A senior United Nations official today expressed concern over the fate of thousands of children caught up in the conflict in Sri Lanka pitting Government forces against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, said in a press release that…

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Tourists shun war-hit Sri Lanka

By pearlaction | January 21, 2009 |

[Telegraph] Unfortunately, the violence has intensified over the last few months as the government has squeezed the LTTE forces back into the northern tip of the country. And this escalation has started to negatively impact the economy, with tourism , one of Sri Lanka’s key industries, severely affected. Although the reporting restrictions put in place…

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War at what Cost?

By pearlaction | January 21, 2009 |

[CNN] An Excerpt from this Blog entry by M.I.A. on the genocidal conflict going on in Sri Lanka: “Just last month, the New York-based Genocide Prevention Project released a report that listed Sri Lanka among the top eight “red alert” countries currently experiencing genocide conflicts. And Human Rights Watch estimates that between 230,000 to 300,000…

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Fears grow for trapped civilians as army advances on Tamil Tigers

By pearlaction | January 18, 2009 |

[Guardian] International concern is intensifying over the fate of around 350,000 civilians trapped in a rapidly shrinking rebel-controlled pocket of land in Sri Lanka‘s north east, as the military steps up its campaign to end the civil war by crushing the Tamil Tiger forces. The Sri Lankan army this week announced that it had seized…

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