The Ceylon News

New York/Colombo, Feb 28: The conditions of the displaced Tamil civilians, currently lodged in IDP camps, in Sri Lanka's embattled north are "reasonably" good and are being provided with all humanitarian assistance, a top UN official has said.

The official also voiced concern over the fate of the thousands of civilians pushed into a shrinking pocket of land in the island's due to ongoing clashes between government forces and the LTTE.

UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes, who visited Sri Lanka last week, told the Security Council in a closed door meeting yesterday that many of these people have been uprooted several times in recent months or years, and are in danger of getting caught in the crossfire between the two sides.

The world body estimates that some 200,000 people are being squeezed into a narrow 14-square kilometre patch of land on the coast in Wanni which the Sri Lankan government has declared a "no-fire zone."

Meanwhile, a Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry statement said Holmes gave some descriptions of his conversations with IDPs and commented on the "fairly satisfactory" physical conditions and the efforts made to have acceptable screening procedures.

"Sir John gave a favourable account of the humanitarian assistance being provided by the Government of Sri Lanka to the civilians 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," the statement said.

The violence has impeded humanitarian aid delivery, with supplies of food, medical supplies, clean water and other essential supplies in critically short supply, Holmes said.

"The risks from hunger and diseases are growing rapidly, in addition to those from fighting," noted Holmes, who also serves as UN Emergency Relief Coordinator.

He told the 15-member Council of his visits to camps for internally displaced persons, adding that the movement into and out of these sites is "currently highly and unacceptably restricted."

Holmes described the situation of trapped people as dire but acknowledged IDPS in transit camps are reasonably well, the statement said.

Holmes said he was not aware of major outbreak of disease in the conflict area.