Humanitarian assistance to Vanni civilians:

Holms’ report favourable

United Nations Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Sir John Holmes who visited Sri Lanka recently has given a favourable report to the UN Security Council on February 27 in New York on the humanitarian assistance provided by the Government of Sri Lanka to the civilians who were earlier held captive by the LTTE as human shields as well as to those who have managed to escape and come into the Government controlled areas, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday.

The statement further said: “Sir John described the situation of trapped people as dire but acknowledged IDP in transit camps are reasonably well. He stated that he was not aware of major outbreak of diseases in the conflict area. He gave some description of his conversations with IDPs and commented on the fairly satisfactory physical conditions and the efforts made to have acceptable screening procedures.

“The remarks of Ambassadors of Security Council member states to the media following the briefing by Sir John reflected their appreciation of the sincere and commendable efforts of the Sri Lankan Government to render assistance to its citizens who are caught up in the conflict, amidst extremely difficult ground conditions”.