Fighting between government troops and Tamil separatists have left the people of Northern Sri Lanka “caught in the cross-fire” of a “never ending war,” the Bishop of Colombo said in a statement released last week.The Rt Rev Duleep de Chickera urged the government and the forces of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) - the Tamil Tigers, to allow religious leaders to broker a peace agreement, as state diplomatic efforts have so far failed to end the fighting that has left over 65,000 dead since 1983.
In a statement released last week, Bishop de Chickera stated that “people of conscience” were sickened by the war which had placed the “majority of civilians at tremendous risk” in the disputed territories.
“Unarmed and trapped in this war zone, large numbers of civilians, including children, are caught in the intense cross-fire of a deadly armed confrontation. Thousands are already displaced and can flee only to places of temporary safety,” he said.
“The situation faced by these civilians is even more desperate since they cannot act independently. They are under conflicting pressure from both sides to support their respective strategies of movement and fear reprisals if they do not. Their dilemma adds to their suffering,” the bishop said.
He endorsed the call made by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Jaffna, the Rt Rev Thomas Savundaranayagam, for international mediation. Failing that, “then an inter-religious group of leaders must be invited to do so” to bring peace to Sri Lanka.
Bishop Savundaranayagam urged the LTTE and the government to allow the 150,000 refugees from Jaffna to return home. The war kept people on the move, he said, driving them from place to place as they sought safety.
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(Source: RI)