Wednesday Award for the Worst Place in the World
[Footage of civilians trapped in northern Sri Lanka from Channel 4 - contains graphic images]
At the moment, the worst place on earth is a vanishingly small patch of land in northern Sri Lanka - the last territory controlled by the rebel Tamil Tigers.
While fierce fighting rages between the Sri Lankan military and the Tigers, as many as 50,000 to 100,000 civilians remain caught in the cross-fire, trapped in a space no larger than Central Park.
Again - 50,000 to 100,000 people trapped in a few square miles, in the midst of continuous fighting. To get a sense of the devastation, please watch the video above. (For a map of the area from the BBC, see here.)
The Director of Operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has described the situation as "nothing short of catastrophic".
"The hostilities are now taking place in a very narrow stretch of land along the eastern coastline of Sri Lanka. And within that narrow stretch, which had been declared a 'no-fire zone' by the government, tens of thousands of civilians remain trapped...
One only needs to imagine: thousands of children, women and men stranded in the very midst of the combat zone. Every rocket or mortar fired is wounding or killing civilians"
[The ICRC estimates that 50,000 civilians are trapped, while the UN estimates as many as 100,000 - it's almost impossible to get an accurate figure, as the Sri Lankan government has barred most aid workers and journalists from the area.]
Civilians are being slaughtered by both sides. According to the UN, over 4,500 civilians have been killed in the past three months alone.
To put those figures in perspective, the AU / UN peacekeeping force in Darfur estimates a total of 496 civilians killed in Darfur during all of 2008.
More information - and eyewitness accounts - below:
On one side, the Sri Lankan military regularly shells the so called "no-fire zone".
According to one woman who was able to escape:
"We were staying near Puttumatalan hospital. On the night of the 20th there was heavy shelling. I thought, I won't survive. There was continuous shelling from midnight to the early morning.
During that time we took shelter inside a bunker. At around 6am, when I came out of the bunker, I saw people running all around amid shelling.
I also joined them. But soon I got injured in the legs and arms. My husband got injured in his head."
For their part, the Tigers are using civilians as human shields, shooting those who try to flee.
A recent article by AFP quotes from civilians who recently fled across the front lines:
"'They (Tigers) were shooting, they were shooting. They tried to stop us,' one unidentified woman told a Sri Lankan state-television journalist embedded with security forces. 'We are happy to get away.'
...
'They (Tigers) shot us. They hit us. They didn't let us come out earlier,' said a teenage girl at a makeshift reception centre."
Human Rights Watch has put together a devastating slide show, showing the impact of the fighting on civilians. For a more in-depth analysis of the situation, please see this short report published in Foreign Policy.
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