In blood steeped

摘要

It Is too late to warn of a civilian slaughter in north-eastern Sri Lanka. The "bloodbath [predicted] has become a reality," said the UN's spokesman in Colombo on May 11th, as news of the latest atrocity emerged from the crowded beach where the army and Tamil Tiger rebels are fighting their last battle. On May 9th and 10th 480 civilian refugees are reported to have been brought dead or dying to a makeshift hospital in the war-zone, victims of shell-fire. A bigger number are alleged to have been buried uncounted in the sand. On May 12th and 13th the hospital itself was shelled, and around 100 people killed, according to doctors working there.