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It is a scene out of Dante's Inferno. Heroic doctors short of supplies tend to hundreds of shell-shocked wounded, who lie on the ground in open air "hospitals," often caked in dirt and soaked in blood. Parents wail and children wander around dazed. The lucky ones receive emergency care, though sometimes this has meant amputations without anaesthetics. Victims have described shells or rocket propelled grenades landing while they slept.
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The UN estimates that since January more than 6,400 civilians have died and almost 15,000 have been injured. But the figure could be much higher, as the government has refused to allow independent observers into the area "for their own safety." In a rare statement, the director of operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross said last week that he could not recall a situation in recent years as painful and extreme.
You might have expected that governments around the world would have done all they could to alleviate so much pain and suffering. Not a bit of it. The UN security council has done virtually nothing. With their veto power, China and Russia have blocked any concerted council action or pressure. Instead of acting, council members have spent a great deal of time wrangling over whether to hold private briefings on Sri Lanka in the UN's basement – which would make the meeting unofficial – or in regular council rooms. Full story...
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