Editorial -

As Lebanon is being hit by Israeli shells and bombs and the Israelis in turn, by Hezbollah rockets, the old Biblical saying 'an eye for an eye' has aggravated to 'a city for a city'.

Tens of thousands of Sri Lankans are trapped in this fire fight - most of them housemaids. While one Sri Lankan woman was confirmed dead more are believed to be casualties. Over 80,000 Sri Lankan citizens are stranded or locked inside empty houses, their employers having fled to the safety of neighbouring Syria without them.

Sri Lankans top the list of foreigners in Lebanon - after the Palestinian refugees, almost all of them being housemaids. They seem to be the worst affected in war-torn Lebanon, which is now bracing itself for a major ground offensive by the Israelis after 11 days of relentless bombardment from air, sea and land.

India has offered to help evacuate the isolated Sri Lankans and the Government here dilly-dallied for two full days before accepting the offer.We only hope that the offers by good Samaritans are not being turned down so that commercial shipping could be chartered and some commissions made in the process, for making a fast buck even at the expense of people's lives is not uncommon nowadays in this corrupt country.

But there are no major international efforts to either stop Israel going on the rampage, or to get foreign workers out of the line of fire. Our UN correspondent in New York reports that a helpless Lebanon watches a powerless UN sit and stare while the rockets crisscross the town of Naquirah.

Wasn't there a mass-scale UN-organised evacuation of expatriates from Kuwait when Iraq occupied that country in 1990? Not only were the expatriates brought back to their countries, they were assured of compensation. But for the Sri Lankans who flee from Lebanon, there may be no compensation or jobs, at least not for a long time.

Despite the revenue these housemaids and expat workers have sent to this country over the years, US $ 1.5 Billion last year,that fact has been lost on the country's policy makers for years. Even the insurance schemes of the Government for these housemaids are freely spent on junkets for ministers and their hangers-on, but when it comes to the welfare of the ordinary citizen, it’s a different story. There is not even a drill for the evacuation of Sri Lankan workers in the always volatile West Asia. Every time there is a crisis, we run around in circles not knowing what to do and this time, the government hoped the crisis will simply go away like a passing cloud and their problem solved.

The Sri Lankan Government discussed the matter at cabinet level this Wednesday and brought back a batch of some 260 Lankans by air.The least they can do now is to organize a few more flights and appeal to the International Organization of Migration for help.

Those who managed to reach the Sri Lankan embassy in Beirut and go to Damascus by bus for the government-organised flight back home, poured out their anguish at the airport yesterday. (See Pages 4 and 5). Some spoke about the bombs that fell around them while others related their date with near death in their desperate attempt to reach the Sri Lankan embassy in Beirut.

While we understand the plight of a cash-strapped government, extravagant wastage of public funds has not helped. The failure of the Foreign Ministry to perceive the unfolding events at the beginning of the crisis, and take appropriate action is taking a heavy toll on the Sri Lankan migrant workers.

The war in The Lebanon is also dealing another major blow to Sri Lanka - the soaring oil prices. The whole country is bracing for a ripple effect of the war in West Asia.

The Lebanese economy, painfully re-built over the past 15 years, is reduced to shambles again. Their infrastructure has totally collapsed, and very soon as they begin re-building, Sri Lankan workers will surely go there once again in search of better wages than they could ever earn back home.

The Government must be equal to the task and ensure that Sri Lankans overseas are given equal protection, and not be just a source of revenue considered second class citizens. Probably, if they are given the right to vote like the overseas citizens of many other democracies, then there may be just a little more concern for them by governments in Colombo.