The European Commission on Wednesday said it was sending 15 million euros (20.6 million dollars) in aid to help victims of the ongoing conflict in Sri Lanka, REPORTED DPA. The commission funds will be used to provide food, housing, sanitation, water and education. It will also finance programmes to help conflict victims find new sources of income and to prepare people in Sri Lanka for natural disasters. The new aid package will go to conflict communities in Sri Lanka, but also aims to improve access to water and sanitation for Sri Lankan refugees living in neighbouring India. EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel said he was extremely worried by the increase in violence affecting Sri Lanka. "The brutality of the conflict is appalling and major violations of international humanitarian law are perpetrated in a climate of impunity," Michel said. He also urged the conflict parties to ensure the security of international aid agency workers and give them access to victims. Deliberate attacks against relief organizations have caused the death of at least 25 aid workers since April 2006, Michel said. Since 1983, the conflict between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan government in the North and East of the country has claimed more than 70,000 lives. Some 800,000 people have been internally displaced and a further 100,000 Sri Lankan Tamils have fled to refugee camps in India. Around 4,500 people have been killed in the last 12 months including at least 1,500 civilians, the commission said. Sri Lanka also suffered its worst disaster in late 2004 when a tsunami generated by an undersea earthquake off Indonesia swept ashore, killing more than 30,000 people and devastating swathes of the coast.
