Red Cross Says Workers Barred From Sri Lankan Camp
May 22, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday that its workers have been denied access to Sri Lanka’s largest refugee camp, reports The Washington Post.
According to a statement on its Web site, the humanitarian organization has been barred from the Menik Farm camp since last weekend and is unable to distribute aid or monitor the condition of some 130,000 Sri Lankans displaced by intense fighting in the closing stages of the country’s 26-year civil war.
The United Nations this week called on the government to allow aid groups unfettered access to the war zone.
Lakshman Hulugalle, a spokesman for Sri Lanka’s Defense Ministry, defended the restrictions, saying the government is doing its best to meet refugees’ needs and is “not letting journalists and others go there to treat these people as if they were animals in a zoo.”
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