The situation has reached a point of extreme urgency. With the government having resumed its military offensive after a two-day pause, the approximately 100,000 civilians trapped between the army and the LTTE are now at grave risk of mass atrocities.
Krishni Ifham Kanthasamy, President of the Tamil Speaking Women Media Organisation, says there has never been a time when Tamil speaking women journalists felt as threatened as they are today.
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development issue a statement: Stop human rights abuse of women, and uphold gender equality and non-discrimination.
Children are being killed, witnessing their family and parents killed, being separated, and suffering injuries including burns, fractures, shrapnel and bullet wounds.
After decades of civil war, at least 100,000 Tamil civilians are caught between the Tamil Tigers, who refuse to let them travel freely, and the Sri Lankan government, which refuses to stop firing at them.
In one of the biggest hospitals in Sri Lanka's north, many women patients wonder why they survived the fighting between the Tamil Tigers and the military that killed so many of their friends.
The humanitarian crisis in northern Sri Lanka has been highlighted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Sir John Holmes, as well as by UN agencies in Sri Lanka.
