John Hockenberry: It’s the latest chapter in a long civil war in Sri Lanka. It’s a brutal story, and in some sense a bizarre story. Tamil separatist fighters ignored a surrender ultimatum by the Sri Lankan government, potentially risking the lives of tens of thousands of civilians who are unable to flee a crumbling safe haven where fierce fighting continues. We’re joined by Somini Sengupta, South Asian Bureau Chief for the New York Times. She joins us from Delhi. So Somini, what is going on and why are these people trapped in this zone in the middle of the crossfire, it seems?
Somini Sengupta: Today, the ICRC called it nothing short of catastrophic. There’s an estimated 50,000 civilians that are trapped in this ever shrinking zone that is still controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam: the LTTE. They have refused to let civilians out of their area. Although, they officially maintain that the civilians are there of their own free will. Yesterday, the Sri Lankan army broke through an arson barrier and tens of thousands of civilians apparently came into government territory and still more came today. This appears to be the final push. The final military assault into that last little bit of land held by the rebels.
John Hockenberry: Do the civilians have any particular allegiance? Are they inclined to associate with one side or the other, or are they completely independent in this?
Somini Sengupta: It’s awfully hard to tell. There isn’t access to independent journalists anywhere near the fighting zones. The civilians have been kept, those who have managed to get out, in camps that are guarded by the military. So it’s very difficult to tell what’s going on in the minds of the civilians. But remember, these are ethnic Tamil civilians who have lived in the Tamil Tiger controlled areas for a very long time. It appears abundantly clear from the testimonies that are coming out from the aid workers who are working with them, that they have been held as civilian shields by the rebels.
John Hockenberry: And civilian shields whose only form of protection is to dig into the sand or hide behind logs?
Somini Sengupta: Yes. Actually for the last several months, as fighting has intensified, the civilians have moved, some of them many, many times, into what is now this really small zone in the North-East of the island. And it appears that they were clustered together in one place near this earthen barrier, the military broke through that earthen barrier, the civilians were able to spill out. The fact that they spilled out like this suggests that they didn’t exactly want to be inside. This is where the most intense fighting is going on. The ICRC doesn’t give any concrete numbers but says that ongoing fighting has killed or wounded hundreds of civilians who have only minimal access to medical care.
John Hockenberry: Somini, is there any chance that the international community could mediate some sort of evacuation? A pause in the fighting, in the final seconds before we go?
Somini Sengupta: There was last week a two-day pause in fighting declared unilaterally by the government. It called on the LTTE to let people go. The LTTE did not let its people go, and that’s the situation that we have today.
John Hockenberry: A tragic situation. The brutal lives and the balance: tens of thousands of civilians unable to flee a crumbling safe haven between fighting of the government of Sri Lanka against the Tamil Tigers. Somini Sengupta, South Asian Chief Bureau for the New York Times, helped us to understand what’s going on there. She joined us from Delhi, India.
