It is estimated that the quarter century old internal civil war in Sri Lanka has claimed the lives of sixty five thousand people. But our view is that it ought to be much more than that.

We see the tragedy of Sri Lanka being a country with no respect for human lives. As there is no likelihood to resolve the Sri Lankan ethnic problem, we are startled to think of the tragedy that lies ahead of the Tamil people in the immediate future.

The statistics of the Home for Human Rights reveals that 1300 extra judicial killings have taken place this year and that one innocent person is killed every 5 hours.

These statistics are collected from the news reports that appeared in the news papers until September. It also reveals that 1339 citizens have been killed by both parties and paramilitary groups within the last 9 months and that majority of the victims were Tamils.

125 persons had either disappeared or been abducted between January and September 19th. Abductions and disappearances of people have increased since May this year.

There are no signs of a decrease in the incidents of violence in the country. Following the failure of the Geneva Talks, people fear that a war may break out any moment. It is explicit that there is hardly any respect for human lives in our country.

An English translation of the editorial in Thinakkural , a Tamil daily, based in Colombo

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