UN Security Council meeting on SL

According to a report by Inner City Press, a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Sri Lanka was scheduled for Friday 27, despite the fact that UN spokesman John Holmes had said "there is no request for a Council meeting," three days earlier. The Council President, Japan's Yukio Takaso had said "at this moment, there is no strong request," on being asked about the issue a week earlier. The meeting would take place under the heading "Other Matters."

During this past month, the conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) appeared to be drawing to a close. The LTTE first began fighting for a separate homeland in 1983. Now, the area of land controlled by the LTTE has shrunk to just 34 square miles, due to significant advances made by the Sri Lankan Army forces.

Humanitarian groups have estimated that there are around 250,000 civilians trapped within this small area. However, the government states there are only about 70,000 civilians in the area concerned. There is much difficulty in ascertaining the state of the fighting as well as the number of deaths, as well as how many civilians are still in LTTE-controlled areas, as journalists are restricted with regards to their movements within the war zone..