Children caught in the intensified conflict in Sri Lanka’s war-torn north are paying a heavy price by way of death, injury and trauma, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) have warned. “The secretary-general is extremely concerned over the deteriorating situation for civilians trapped in northern Sri Lanka,” said a statement issued by Ban’s office last month. “He strongly deplores the mounting death toll of civilians in the area of fighting, which includes a significant number of children.”
“Children are being killed, witnessing their family and parents killed, being separated, and suffering injuries including burns, fractures, shrapnel and bullet wounds,” adds Unicef’s Humanitarian Update for Sri Lanka, released on March 4. “There is a dire lack of clean water, food, proper sanitation and medicine. In turn this has further worsened the nutritional status of affected populations, with malnutrition rates in the north higher than the national average,” says the Unicef report.
Heavy fighting since mid-2008 between Sri Lanka government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the northern Vanni area, which includes Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu districts and parts of Mannar and Vavuniya districts, about 300 km from Colombo, has forced tens of thousands to flee. More than 36,000 have escaped the fighting into government-controlled areas since January. However, Unicef estimates between 150,000-200,000 civilians to be trapped in the rapidly shrinking area of fighting. The defence ministry confirms that the LTTE had been pushed into a narrow area of about 55 sq. km by March 3.
In particular Unicef has raised concerns about LTTE’s recruitment of underage children. “Recruitment of children by armed groups continues to be reported and is assumed to have increased over the past months in the north.”
Tens of thousands of children have been unable to attend school as they have been forced to flee on multiple occasions as fighting advanced, adds Unicef. “The conflict has forced more than 60,000 children of primary school age out of the education system. Many children have been displaced up to 12 times over the past year and have been living in bunkers and trenches for weeks on end.”
Ban called on both combatant parties to allow civilians to move safely out of danger areas. “The secretary-general renews his call to the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to suspend hostilities for the purposes of allowing civilians to leave the conflict zone, and allowing immediate humanitarian access to them,” says the statement.
(Excerpted and adapted from www.irinnews.org)