At last, the United Nations Security Council has spoken. It has seen what has been miserably apparent all year: that there is a bloodbath under way in the ever-diminishing territory held by rebel Tamils in north-eastern Sri Lanka.

True, the end-game in this long and vicious civil war has been clouded by the swirl of unverifiable reports and propaganda from both sides. Yet, as leaked UN satellite pictures as well as eyewitness accounts from the front attest, it is perfectly clear that innocent civilians, including women and a lot of children, are being killed in their hundreds, mostly by air strikes and shelling by the government.