Hundreds escape fighting, thousands still trapped

Some 1,600 civilians escaped fighting in the combat zone in northeastern Sri Lanka on 5 February, and fled to government-held areas, according to the Sri Lankan army. Another 600 civilians were waiting to cross over on 6 February, said Sri Lankan military spokesperson Brig Udaya Nanayakkara.

At the same time aid agencies are warning the situation of some 250,000 civilians still trapped in the zone is getting graver by the day.

"The civilians, most of whom have been displaced, are completely dependent on humanitarian aid from the outside, including food… as they are not in a position to grow their own crops," Paul Castella, the Sri Lanka delegation head of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), told IRIN. "Their safety is also one of our main concerns as there is fighting going on."

The ICRC is the only international agency with a permanent presence inside areas of heavy fighting in the northern Kilinochchi and Mulaithivu districts, about 300km north of the capital, Colombo.

"Terrible cost"

"Civilians are bearing a terrible cost both in terms of dead and injured and acute lack of access to food, shelter, safety and medicine," Patrick Nicholson, spokesperson for the Catholic charity, Caritas, told IRIN. "The best and only option is for both sides to uphold their international legal commitments to the protection of civilians."

Catholic priests are still present in the combat zone and Caritas said one of its sub-offices and several if its vehicles were hit by shell-fire.

The ICRC said a regular window needed to be established for humanitarian convoys to travel in and out of the combat areas to maintain sufficient supplies.

"The pattern for convoys in the last few weeks has been for them to take place once a week," the ICRC's Castella told IRIN. "There has to be a [more frequent] flow of humanitarian aid, in addition to immediate safe passage for the sick and wounded to receive the medical treatment they need."

The last substantial supply convoy of 800 metric tonnes (mt) of food and other supplies travelled to the combat zone on 16 January, while a smaller convoy of 170mt entered on 29 January.

Hospital patients await evacuation

The ICRC said it was making arrangements to transport 500 patients out of the combat zone. ICRC spokesperson Sarasi Wijerathne said the agency was negotiating with both the government and the LTTE to arrange safe passage out of the combat zones for the injured. "We are in constant touch with the parties to ensure the safe passage," Wijeratne said.

The patients had moved out of the Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital, the only functioning medical facility within the combat zone, after it was hit by shell-fire on at least four occasions between 1 and 3 February.

Over 60 civilians were killed and scores injured in fighting, including the attack on the hospital this week, according to UN and ICRC estimates.

The ICRC said the hospital staff, patients and its own representatives evacuated the hospital to Putumattalan village, northeast of the fighting, and are staying at a community centre. The ICRC told IRIN of concerns over the availability of safe drinking water at Putumattalan where thousands of other civilians have also converged.

The Sri Lankan government said in a statement on 3 February that it was advising medical staff and their patients at hospitals and clinics in the combat area to move either into a safe zone designated by the government on the northwestern part of the area of fighting, or move out of the combat area.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a phone call on 5 February that "the current military operations to defeat terrorism in Sri Lanka would be carried out without harassment to the civilian population in the north." Meanwhile, the government has said unconditional surrender of the LTTE is the only means of ending hostilities.

ap/bj/cb