Sri Lankan communities in Eastern Washington are hoping raise awareness of the political and social conditions in their native country.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians are currently suffering due to a long running civil war between the government and the Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist militant organization, which plagues the small island nation off the coast of India.

This Friday, May 15, the Vedic Cultural Center (VCC) will host a prayer meeting to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis, from 7:30-8:30 p.m.

“The situation in Northern Sri Lanka has reached catastrophic proportions of human suffering and senseless slaughter of innocent, unarmed Sri Lankan civilians,” said President of the VCC, Harivilas Das. “There are upwards of 100,000 civilians in makeshift refugee camps under government control. The conditions in these camps are deplorable due to insufficient food, shelter, medicine and emergency care.”

“To make things, unbearable there has been a “bloodbath” as a result of bombing of the civilian “safe zone” camp.”

The UN representative in Colombo, Gordon Weiss, has reported that more than 100 children have died along with approximately 1000 adults.

“There are about 50,000 civilians still trapped in the war zone beside the 100,000 in refugee camps in government controlled areas,” Harivilas Das said. “An unprecedented human disaster is imminent unless the hostilities stop and relief and protection be given to the civilians.”

All are welcome to attend the prayer meeting at the center, which is located at 1420 228th Ave. SE, Sammamish. More info: www.vedicculturalcenter.org.