UN chief and global aid agencies call for truce in Sri Lanka

John Holmes, the United Nations undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, and global aid agencies have called for an urgent “temporary humanitarian lull” in northern Sri Lanka so that aid workers can enter the zone where nearly 200 000 civilians are trapped.

In a comment article in the Guardian on 8 April (www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/08/tamil-protests-sri-lanka-john-holmes) Sir John said: “The Sri Lankan military has pushed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam into an area so small that any shooting or shelling inevitably causes casualties among . . . civilians trapped in the same zone.”

Information on the situation is limited, and credible reports are scarce, because of the Sri …