Hillary Clinton Protests Civilian Deaths in Sri Lanka

Saturday, March 14, 2009 at 4:34 pm

Hillary Clinton Protests Civilian Deaths in Sri Lanka WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to express her “deep concern” over mounting deaths in a government safe zone, a US official said.

Clinton told him that Sri Lankan troops “should not fire into civilian areas of the conflict zone” and urged him to allow humanitarian groups full access to people in need, said a State Department spokesman, Gordon Duguid.

The secretary called Rajapaksa to “express the United States’ deep concern over the deteriorating conditions and increasing loss of life” in the government-designated zone in the country’s north, he said in a statement.

Last month the government in Colombo asked men, women and children to move to a stretch of coastline as troops advanced on rebel positions in the north in a bid to crush all remaining pockets of resistance by Tamil Tiger rebels.

“The secretary stated that the Sri Lankan Army should not fire into the civilian areas of the conflict zone,” according to Duguid who was replying to a question from AFP about the substance of the phone call.

Earlier this month, New York-based Human Rights Watch alleged the military had “repeatedly and indiscriminately” shelled densely populated areas and hospitals inside the war zone.

Government forces have pushed Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels into a shrinking strip of land in the northeast and have said they hope to completely crush the guerrillas by April.

But tens of thousands of civilians are trapped behind the front line, according to relief agencies.

Duguid said Clinton “urged the president to give international humanitarian relief organizations full access to the conflict area and displaced persons camps, including screening centers.”

With the exception of the International Committee of the Red Cross, aid agencies face many restrictions in their efforts to transport food and supplies to civilians caught up in the conflict.

Hillary Clinton Protests Civilian Deaths in Sri Lanka

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