Fire-related deaths in India: how accurate are the estimates?

www.thelancet.com Vol 374 July 11, 2009 117 Sri Lanka’s brutal, three-decadelong war has come to an end. Although very timely, your May 16 World Report contains some points that are biased and incorrect, and will certainly tarnish the image of Sri Lanka. First, the main reason for the military operations continuing during the country’s biggest festival was to rescue the innocent civilians kept as hostages. This is a legitimate right of the Government of Sri Lanka. The long time taken by the Sri Lankan army to rescue just a 3 km2 area is itself strong evidence of the respect that the army had for the lives of civilians. Heavy artillery and air attacks would have fi nished the job in a matter of a few hours. I agree that there are defi ciencies in the facilities provided for displaced people for obvious reasons. But these defi ciencies are no worse than what the world witnessed, for example, after hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005. This is the biggest ever hostage-rescuing mission in the world, and Sri Lanka is a developing country trying hard to thrive amid terrorism. What we need at this hour is help and positive encouragement.