Word: colombos
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...spokesperson Gordon Weiss said on May 10 that doctors serving inside the shrinking combat zones have proved reliable in the past - a statement that drew sharp condemnation from Colombo. "Mr. Gordon Weiss should be a lot more discreet about what he says in public, given the sensitivities involved, especially at a time when emotions are running high, not only in Sri Lanka, but elsewhere as well," Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona said. Weiss has overstepped his mandate, Kohona says, effectively giving a stamp of authenticity to unverified claims about the war. The Sri Lankan government has made it all but impossible...
...away nearly 16,000 sq km of territory: Sri Lankan Army soldiers posing on duty, and desperate civilians seeking their help. The enemy is all but invisible, reinforcing the Sri Lankan government's position that its conflict with the LTTE isn't a conventional war at all, but what Colombo calls a "war on terror." British foreign secretary David Miliband, in a speech to the house of commons on April 30, called it "a war without witness...
...face of international pressure - particularly from its former colonial power Britain - is an issue of national pride for the Sri Lankan government. "They don't want to be told what to do," says Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, a research institute in Colombo, and does not want humanitarian concerns to derail the final push against the LTTE...
...According to the Associated Press, a memo the U.N. circulated among Colombo-based diplomats reported that more than 6,400 civilians had been killed and 13,000 injured in the last three months. Buhne declined to comment on these figures for TIME. What's indisputable, however, is the humanitarian crisis the exodus is creating. "The massive influx within three days has completely overwhelmed the resources available," Buhne said. "We have to act fast...
...Five-star hotels some 155 miles (250 km) away in Colombo have made available their kitchens and staff to cook meals that are then airlifted to refugees. Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohita Bogollagama appealed for help last week, asking "our friends in the international community" to provide emergency relief aid "initially by way of semipermanent shelter, water purification plants, sanitation facilities and medical assistance...