Word: zone
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...some 110,000 civilians who have poured out of the war zone - a fast-shrinking sliver of land still under Tiger control - since April 20 when the army broke through a key embankment in an effort to bring an end to the 25-year conflict with the ethnic separatists...
...February the government established a no-fire zone, requesting civilians to move into it to escape the fighting. Once the last remaining Tiger units had also moved into the zone, the government accused the Tigers of firing at troops from within the safe zone. Aid agencies have reported fighting within the zone in recent weeks. "No one is safe inside the safe zone,"says Neil Buhne, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Sri Lanka. "The Tigers are conscripting to fill depleted cadre levels, the military is advancing and civilians in close proximity face extreme danger...
...Lankan government estimates some 15,000 civilians are still trapped in the war zone; the U.N. says the number could be as high as 50,000. And food and medicine have been in short supply on the Tigers' side of the line. "For a family of four, they would give rations sufficient for two," Rageswari said, three days after fleeing the fighting while meeting a group of journalists flown in by the Sri Lankan military to Putumattalan, about a kilometer (half a mile) from the frontline...
...Meanwhile, several countries are trying to help forge a truce - or at least a temporary suspension of fighting - so government troops can get the remaining civilians out of the war zone. The Sri Lankan president met with high-ranking officials from India, just after its government condemned the killing of Tamil civilians. The U.S. has also expressed concern over the dangers faced by civilians, and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner is expected to visit the country in the coming days. The Tigers have indicated their willingness to agree to a truce but, according to U.N. officials, are still preventing civilians...
...Buhne told TIME that the government had agreed to let his team send experts into the no-fire zone for a short assessment visit. "There will be a cessation of hostilities during the time the team remains in the no-fire zone," he said. "The purpose is to assess the situation there and also identify means to get the remaining civilians...