Hundreds and thousands of people fled across a lagoon under a storm of rebel gunshells on Thursday to get out of Sri Lanka's warzone. 4 civilians were dead and 14 were wounded from bullets from the Tamil Tigers. Even health workers abandoned their hospitals and fled, leaving hundreds of wounded patients, crying for food and water.
The government had cornered the Tamil Tigers on a spit that was between the sea and the lagoon after twenty five years of a civial war. The rebels were using civilians as their shields, and 2,700 civilians ran across the lagoon into the government-controlled land despite the gunfirings. Another 2,000 were waiting on the shore to escape.
Approximately 200,000 civilians fled from war-zones in the past few months and are being held in crowded displacement camps. Unfortunately, an estimated number of 50,000 civilians were still trapped, holding the government forces back from their attack.
The fighting during the last few month had been brutal. Approximately 6,500 people were killed in the last three months. Unrelenting shelling in the area over the past 6 days had killed hundreds more. About 100 of those dead died in two strikes on the makeshift hospital. However, the doctors and workers of hospitals abandoned the civilians and fled, saying that the shellings made it too risky for them to work there. They had left 400 wounded people in the hospital. The medical staff hid inside bunkers and ignored the cries of patients begging for help. The trapped civilians were taking cover in bunkers and in underground spaces, and they are out of water and food.
In response to this brutal humanitarian crisis, President Obama demanded the rebels to lay down their weapons and release the civilians. He also demanded that Sri Lanka's government stop firing shells. The U.N. Security Council had similar demands, and Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon's chief of staff would leave for Sri Lanka for his plea to end the conflict without furthermore bloodshed.
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This is like a hostage situation, but with a massive number of 50,000 hostages. Unless a superhero exists on this Earth, the demands of the rebels must be heard and met first because the safety of the 50,000 civilians is top priority. Another solution would be providing a federal state for the Tamil Tigers and negotiate to evacuate the Tigers out of the war zone. We should also try to negotiate to bring the sick out of the warzone. In addition, we should provide those who managed to escape enough food, water, and medicine. With regards to the doctors that fled the hospitals and abandoning the sick and the wounded, they should be stripped of their professions. A doctor's duty is to cure anyone regardless of who the person is or under what circumstances. Doctors are supposed to breathe life back into bodies, but they have fled as cowards.
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