People have lost faith in peace efforts. People in the North and East are facing tragedies and disasters similar to those at war time.

Two weeks are more for the birth of the new year. The world is preparing to celebrate Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ who came to the world to preach peace. There is fear in the minds of Tamils and other races that a war might break out any time. The Sri Lankan people are anticipating the dawn of the New Year with anxiety.

With the closure of A9 highway in the North and another highway in the east, the people in the North-East have been denied the right to mobility for several months.

Around 40000 internally displaced people in Vaharai are facing a human tragedy as a result of clashes, transport ban and scarcity of food, medicines and other essential commodities.

Consequent to shell attacks, air strikes and war on the land, the people in the Vaharai area flee from one place to another through fear. Since the land route is closed they have no way of moving out of Vaharai along the road and therefore they flee by sea. 14 families that fled by boat had died as the boats had capsized. This sad event reveals the height of human tragedy in Vaharai.

As a result of the attacks in the North-East not only the Tamils but also other communities including the Sinhala people are also badly affected. Although both the government and the LTTE say that they target the military positions, we find that it’s the innocent civilians who become victims by these military offensives.

Army Commander Sarath Fonseka has stated that the attacks will continue until the LTTE is driven out of the east. This statement has caused fear in the minds of the people in the east. That is why people are trying to flee from these areas.

International Red Cross Society and UN Non Governmental Organizations have already expressed concern over the sorry plight of the refugees in Vaharai area. UN has emphasized that the military clashes must be stopped and that both the government and the LTTE must ensure freedom of the movement of the people.

The government has announced that it is prepared to create a security zone to settle the refugees from Vaharai. Since the government would like to locate it in army controlled areas and since most of the refugees are in LTTE controlled areas, there can be a controversy over this proposal.

K.Thurairatnasingham, Member of Parliament for Trincomalee has appealed to the international community to declare the entire Vahari area as a security zone.

Since this is a human tragedy, both parties must give serious thought to this problem and find a solution expeditiously and avert direct intervention by the UNO.

An English translation of the Editorial in Uthayan, a Tamil daily, based in Jaffna

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