RSSThe Catholic bishop of war-torn Jaffna diocese on the northern tip of Sri Lanka has joined 300 Christian and Hindu hunger strikers urging action to protect civilians caught in the ethnic conflict.
Bishop Thomas Savundaranayagam also appealed separately to the country´s president and to Tamil rebels for the safety of people trapped in the combat zone. A statement the diocese´s justice and peace commission released on Jan. 29 said more than 400 civilians had been killed and more than 1,400 injured there during the preceding 10 days.
A protest fast on Jan. 28 outside the diocese´s Saint Mary´s cathedral drew Anglican bishops, Catholic and Church of South India priests, nuns and other people including members of Hindu organizations. They meditated, prayed and appealed for the international community to intervene.
“We expect more action from the international community,” Subramaniam Paramanathan confirmed from Jaffna on Jan. 29. The 75-year-old Hindu from the People´s Council for Peace and Goodwill, a center whose patrons are religious leaders, said by phone that the hunger strike had continued a second day.
“It is the time to express our solidarity. … People who may be Hindu or Christian in the war zone — they are our brothers,” he said.
Bishop Savundaranayagam, also speaking from the peninsula, said he had written to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and to Tamil rebel leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran to ensure the safety of nearly half a million people.
In his letter, dated January 25, he appealed for “extension of a civilian safety zone” in Mullaitivu district to include the villages of Iranapalai, Mathalan, Mullivaikal and Valaiamadam, as well as the eastern part of Puthukkudiyiruppu town, close to the northeastern port of Mullaitivu.
State forces earlier declared a no-fire safety zone of 35 square kilometers in the rebel-held territory. More than 6,000 civilians reportedly have arrived in that zone.
Media reports claimed the army seized Mullaitivu, the last major town the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled, on Sunday, but that mortar fire and close-quarter battles continued near Puthukkudiyiruppu.
The rebels held only about 300 square kilometers, mainly jungle and villages, the reports said.
According to Bishop Savundaranayagam, displaced people keep flocking into areas that are already overcrowded. Priests and nuns had joined them, assembling in churches in the northern part of Mullaitivu.
“They are moving with the people,” the bishop said of the Church workers. “Having lived with them in all suffering, they will not abandon them.”
The prelate reported that U.N. agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross are having great difficulty supplying essential aid to people.
The Catholic Bishops´ Conference in Sri Lanka earlier appealed for the safety of the civilians in a Jan. 17 letter addressed to Rajapaksa.
The LTTE launched their armed struggle in 1983 to create an independent state for minority Tamils, claiming decades of systematic discrimination under successive governments led by the Sinhalese ethnic majority after independence from Britain in 1948. The conflict has claimed 80,000 lives.
Bishop Savundaranayagam refuted some recent Colombo-based media reports that quoted him as not opposing the war.
“The Church is always against the war. But our priority here is the safety of every innocent civilian in the war areas,” he stressed.
The state exercises strict control over media coverage of the war.
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