EU offers more aid to battle-scarred Sri Lanka

The European Commission on Thursday announced an additional three million euros funding for the Red Cross to help tackle the growing humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka's strife-torn north.
"I am appalled by the humanitarian catastrophe in the north of Sri Lanka. Thousands of civilians trapped in the conflict zone have died and more are dying every day, not only from repeated shelling but also from lack of food, water and medical care," said EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel.
"Only minimal humanitarian assistance is being allowed into the area. There is an immediate and urgent need to act, to save lives and prevent further human tragedy," he added in a statement.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is the only international humanitarian organisation allowed into the conflict zone and is working "in desperate conditions" to bring life-saving assistance to the people who are trapped and to evacuate the sick and wounded, the Commission said.
United Nations' human rights chief Navi Pillay has said she fears both sides could be guilty of war crimes in the Sri Lanka conflict and that more than 2,800 civilians could have been killed since late January.
"The government must face its obligations to protect all its citizens by stopping the indiscriminate shelling of civilians and by agreeing to a humanitarian lull so that adequate food and medicines can be brought into the area and sick and wounded people can leave," said Michel.
The announcement of fresh EU aid came as Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders, or MSF) warned that civilians pouring out of the war zone in Sri Lanka's north are in dire need of emergency medical and psychological help.
The MSF also voiced "extreme" concern for 150,000 Tamil civilians still trapped by fierce fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels.
Over the past five years the Commission, the EU's executive arm, has given a total of 95 million euros (130 million dollars) in aid for victims of humanitarian crises in Sri Lanka, including 42 million euros for victims of the 2004 tsunami.