Exodus of misery

WITH loudhailers hitched to the tallest palmyrah trees, Tamil-speaking soldiers of the Sri Lanka army had for weeks been urging civilians inside a dwindling strip of territory held by the rebel Tamil Tigers to break through their cordon and flee. But since April 20th, when the army burst an embankment at Putumattalan, the authorities have been overwhelmed by the thousands pouring out. The Tigers’ defences were less to keep the army out than to fence the civilians in.

The government had expected an exodus far smaller than the one which came, bringing 114,520 civilians in the next nine days. Since January an estimated 190,000 have fled. The UN’s assessment that there were originally around 250,000 trapped civilians, dismissed as exaggerated by the government, now looks roughly right. Read more ...