UN SECRETARY GENERAL BAN-KI
MOON CONDEMNS THE LTTE
ATTACK ON UN WORKERS WITH AMBASSADORS
By Walter Jayawardhana
The United nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack
by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka which injured
senior aid officials, including one from the United Nations, and urged
both sides in the conflict to halt the bloodshed and resume talks.
In the attack at Batticaloa , in Eastern Sri Lanka the US Ambassador
in Colombo Robert Blake and his Italian counterpart Pio Mariani were
injured. Pio Mariani was immediately rushed to the Batticaloa Teaching
Hospital and airlifted to Colombo with some minor head injuries. The
European Union also has condemned the attack.
Mr. Bans statement came in reaction to the shelling by the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of a helicopter airfield in
Batticaloa in eastern Sri Lanka, where 12 people, including the UN
Resident Coordinator and other members of a high-ranking international
delegation taking part in a humanitarian assessment mission, were
injured, according to a statement released by his spokesperson condemning
the incident.
The attack was in total disregard for the lives of civilians,
humanitarian workers, Government officials, and the international
community, Michele Montas told reporters in New York.
The Secretary-General urges the parties to the conflict to end
the destructive spiral of violence and calls on them to make every
effort to return to the peace process as soon as possible, she
said.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other agencies have been
struggling to assist tens of thousands of civilians who have fled
fighting between the Government and the LTTE.
UNHCR estimates that some 70,000 people have been killed and 465,000
displaced by the more than two decade-long conflict, including nearly
205,000 uprooted since fighting erupted anew in April 2006 despite
a ceasefire signed in 2002.