The Ceylon News

The army says it means to "eradicate" the Tamil rebels

LTTE has denied Red Cross and UN reports of a major humanitarian crisis in the north, where troops are fighting Tamil Tiger rebels.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told the BBC that he had a policy of "zero" civilian casualties.

The Red Cross believes that hundreds of civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands more are trapped.

With aid supplies mostly blocked, the UN plans to make a new bid on Thursday to evacuate badly injured civilians.

It will be the second time in three days that a United Nations convoy, trapped in the town of Puthukkudiyiruppu, will attempt to reach hundreds of critically wounded civilians, including at least 50 seriously injured children, the UN said from Colombo.

It is seeking permission from the Tamil Tigers to cross the front line during a lull in fighting and ferry the injured to Ministry of Health hospitals in Vavuniya that can cope with their wounds.

India has sought assurances that civilians trapped by the fighting in northern Sri Lanka will be protected.

At a meeting, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee urged Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa - the defence secretary's brother - to expand "safe zones" for those displaced.

'Exaggeration'

Gotabhaya Rajapakse said both the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and UN were wrong about the situation in the north.

INSURGENCY TIMELINE 1976: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam form in the north-east 1987: India deploys peace-keepers to Tamil areas but they leave in 1990 2002: Government and rebels agree ceasefire 2006: Heavy fighting resumes 2009: Army takes main rebel bases of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu India's dilemma in Sri Lanka Voices from Sri Lanka Tamil diaspora voices

"I'm not saying they are lying but they are exaggerating," he said.

He also ruled out any ceasefire for humanitarian reasons, saying it would give the Tigers a chance to reorganise.

"The purpose of this offensive is to eradicate them," he said.

The military say they are involved in a final push against retreating rebels.

Moving north from the captured rebel town of Mullaitivu, they are trying to secure the north-east coastline to encircle the rebels and say they hope to control the entire north within weeks.

The ICRC said earlier that hundreds of civilians had been killed and a quarter of a million people were trapped by the fighting.

The ICRC based its figure of dead on body counts by its staff in local hospitals.

It called on the government troops and rebels to allow immediate and free access to the combat zone for humanitarian workers.

But Sri Lanka's Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights said it was the rebels who were preventing the evacuation of civilians, not government forces.

It accused the Tigers of bombarding and killing civilians and suggested the Red Cross suffered from "either wilful ignorance or naivete" when it accused both sides of endangering civilians.

Mullaittivu (Sri Lanka), Jan 28: On the hunt for elusive Tiger supremo V Prabhakaran, Sri Lankan security forces have stumbled upon a damaged bullet-proof car that could have been used here by either LTTE chief or other senior rebel leaders.

The rugged-looking covered pick up wagon, fitted with double steel sheets to escape bullet hits, was found in thick jungles near here as Lankan forces scour the area for the LTTE topmen, a senior defence official told here.

It is a crude improvised version of a bullet-proof vehicle, unlike the new technologically advanced bullet-proof cars available off the shelf, he said.

"It was perhaps used by the senior LTTE leaders," Nandana Udawattee, the Brigadier commanding the specialised 59 division of the army, explained and said in previous encounters too, the Lankan forces had come across such vehicles in battles.

The military feels that as the battle to the finish intensifies, some of the Tiger leaders including Prabhakaran were believed to have been using the such vehicles to coordinate operations as also to escape attack or injury.

In November, Lankan troops had fired on a passing such vehicle killing the LTTE cadre at the wheel.

The Lankan Army thinks that these crude bullet-proof vehicles were brought ashore in freight ships.

The defence official said the drawback of these vehicles was that they became heavier and slower in movement due to heavy steel plates that slowed them down.

During the battles to capture the main town of Mullaittivu, the army also recovered an improvised mortar launcher.

Chennai, Jan 28: AIADMK leader J Jayalalaithaa on Wednesday rejected Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s invitation to visit the war-ravaged northern parts of his country, and instead asked her political opponent and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi to go there.

Rajapaksa had on Tuesday, while meeting visiting Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, invited Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa to Sri Lanka to persuade the Tamil Tiger rebels to lay down arms and enter into the democratic mainstream.

However, the AIADMK supremo told a press conference in Chennai that she is turning down the Sri Lankan President’s offer as she is a staunch opponent of the LTTE and her call for them to lay down arms would not lead to anything.

Taking a dig at the Tamil Nadu CM, Jayalalithaa said that Karunanidhi should visit the neighbouring country as he has always been a staunch supporter and close friend of the LTTE. If the DMK chief makes an offer to Tamil Tigers, they would listen to him, she added.

Jayalalithaa further said that ceasefire in the war-ravaged island nation can be achieved only if LTTE rebels lay down arms.

Karuna threatens to sue Jaya over charge on Lankan relief fund

Describing the AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa's allegation as defamatory that Karunnidhi had "siphoned off" money from the Sri Lankan Relief Fund constituted by the Tamil Nadu government, the Chief Minister today sent a legal notice to her demanding an "unconditional" apology.

The notice, sent on his behalf by Additional Advocate General P Wilson, said Jayalalithaa's statement was "highly defamatory and liable for criminal prosecution and punishable" under different sections of IPC.

"You have accused my client with defamatory malicious statement that it raises doubt in the minds of the people as to whether the funds were appropriated and taken over by the Chief Minister and his family fold. My client has answered as to how the fund is being utilized," Wilson said in the notice.

Having held the position of Chief Minister in the past Jayalalithaa should be "knowing pretty well," about functional aspects of the government in the matter of collection, accounting and utilisation of such funds, the notice said.

"Knowing fully well the entire mechanism involved, you have made such reckless statement with malicious intentions. Your statement is highly defamatory (and) made with the sole purpose of lowering the dignity of my client and also the officials of the state government, in the eyes of the public," the notice said.

If Jayalalithaa does not tender her apology within three days of receipt of the notice "we will have no option except to initiate proceedings for defamation in criminal law and also claim damages," the notice said.

Sri Lankan forces on Wednesday fought their way into another village still held by the Tamil Tigers, an official said, as neighbouring India raised fears for civilians caught up in the war.

Soldiers marched into the village of Visuamadu in the final phase of operations against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a military official said.

"Troops have entered Visuamadu. There's heavy fighting in the area," the official said.

Government forces were now too close to the Tiger positions for the rebels to use their long-range artillery, the official said.

The territory under control of the Tigers has been rapidly shrinking since mid-2007 and the guerrillas lost their last urban centre when the military seized the town of Mullaittivu on Sunday.

During clashes on Tuesday, security forces engaged the rebels in five different areas in the small triangle of coastal territory still held by the LTTE and killed 19 rebels, the military official said.

Two of the rebels killed by troops on Tuesday were believed to be senior field commanders, the officer said. He did not say if the military suffered casualties in the latest fighting.

Government forces are trying to capture 30 kilometres (18 miles) of sea front north of Mullaittivu, the rebels' main military headquarters.

Seizing the coastline would leave the remaining LTTE forces -- and possibly Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran -- totally encircled by ground troops.

The continued heavy fighting came as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) sounded the alarm over what it said was a major humanitarian crisis in northern Sri Lanka, where some 250,000 ethnic Tamil civilians have been caught up in the war.

International concern has been echoed by the Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee who, while on a surprise visit to the war-torn island state, called for urgent measures to protect civilians caught up in the fighting.

Medical facilities there were overwhelmed by "hundreds of dead and scores of wounded," the ICRC said in a statement from its headquarters in Geneva.

"It's high time to take decisive action and stop further bloodshed because time is running out," said Jacques de Maio, ICRC head of operations for South Asia.

According to a local health official, at least 178 civilians have been killed and another 725 wounded in fighting during January.

The pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website says the civilian toll is far higher.

Sri Lanka has dismissed charges of widespread civilian deaths with military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara branding such claims part of a "cheap propaganda exercise" by the Tigers.

Meanwhile, the state-run Daily News said Tamil Tigers prevented international aid workers from evacuating 300 hospital patients inside rebel-held territory.

A convoy of two dozen vehicles arranged by the ICRC and the United Nations to transport the sick was barred from crossing the frontline, the daily said.

The patients from the Puthukkudiriruppu area in Mullaittivu district were to be handed over to the military and transferred to a hospital in Vavuniya, which lies in a government-controlled area in the north.

The Red Cross spokeswoman in Colombo, Sarasi Wijeratne, declined to comment on the newspaper report. However, a UN spokesman in Colombo, Gordon Weiss, said the rebels refused permission to move the convoy.

"They (the Tigers) said it was unsafe for us to go forward," Weiss said, adding the UN estimated there were 200 patients to be evacuated.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the Tigers launched their war for a separate Tamil homeland in 1972.

Sri Lanka has pledged not to launch attacks inside a "safe zone" set up as a place of refuge for hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped by the fierce fighting between the military and Tamil rebels, the government said Wednesday.

The announcement came after repeated reports of army forces firing artillery into the zone, which the government set up on the edge of rebel-held territory for ethnic Tamil civilians to seek shelter from the fighting. Scores of civilians were killed in those attacks, a health official said.

The military denied firing into the area during its offensive to root the Tamil Tiger rebels from the northeast.

Amid the reports of rising casualties, Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee rushed to Sri Lanka on Tuesday night and held emergency meetings with top officials, including President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

During the late-night meeting, Rajapaksa gave assurances Sri Lankan forces would respect the safe zone to "minimize the effects of conflict on Tamil civilians," according to nearly identical statements released by India and Sri Lanka on Wednesday.

Human rights groups and diplomats have expressed concerns for the estimated 250,000 civilians trapped in the territory still under rebel control — an area of about 115 square miles (300 square kilometers). The government says the number is far lower.

At least 300 civilians were wounded and scores feared killed by Sri Lankan army artillery shells fired into the safe zone on Monday, according to a health official and pro-rebel reports. The military denied firing into the zone.

The government unilaterally declared a "safe zone" last week in a small section of rebel-held territory and called on civilians to move into that area. There have been several reports of artillery fire in that area, including Monday's shelling.

U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss said his staff has seen "dozens of people killed and wounded" in the safe zone over the past few days, including 10 civilians killed Monday. He said he did not know who was responsible for firing in the area.

But a local health official, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from the government, said he believed the government was responsible for the casualties because of the direction from which the fire came.

The Red Cross appealed to both sides Tuesday to allow the civilians to flee to safety.

"People are being caught in the crossfire, hospitals and ambulances have been hit by shelling and several aid workers have been injured while evacuating the wounded," said Jacques de Maio, the International Committee of the Red Cross head of operations for South Asia.

Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said 3,141 civilians have fled to the government-controlled territory this month.

The shelling comes as the rebels continue to pull their forces and civilians into the last remaining areas of dense jungle still under their control. Government forces captured Mullaittivu, the last town held by the rebels, on Sunday.

The Tamil Tigers have fought since 1983 to create a separate state for minority Tamils, who have suffered decades of marginalization at the hands of governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the civil war.

Access to the combat zone is tightly controlled

The Indian government has sought assurances from Colombo that civilians trapped by the fighting in Sri Lanka will be protected.

India's appeal came as the Sri Lankan army pushed forward in its offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels in the north of the country.

The Indian embassy said the Sri Lankan government had insisted that safe zones for Tamil civilians would be respected.

The Red Cross has warned the battle is causing a humanitarian crisis.

It said hundreds of civilians had been killed and a quarter of a million people were trapped by the fighting.

India's external affairs minister, Pranab Mukherjee, held talks with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse during an unscheduled visit to the country.

"The Sri Lankan government has reassured that they would respect the safe zones and minimise the effects of conflict on Tamil civilians," the Indian High Commission in Colombo said in a statement after the talks.

Threat

Sri Lanka's minority Tamil community in the island's war-ravaged north-east has close cultural, religious and business ties with the over 50 million Tamils living in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

INSURGENCY TIMELINE 1976: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam form in the north-east 1987: India deploys peace-keepers to Tamil areas but they leave in 1990 2002: Government and rebels agree ceasefire 2006: Heavy fighting resumes 2009: Army takes main rebel bases of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu Voices from Sri Lanka Tamil diaspora voices Winning war and peace

There have been reports in the Indian media that a regional Tamil party, which heads the government of Tamil Nadu and is an ally of the ruling Congress-party-led federal coalition, has threatened to pull out if the security of Tamils in Sri Lanka was not ensured.

Pranab Mukherjee said the Indian government wanted to work with its Sri Lankan counterpart to ensure the restoration of normalcy in the northern part of the island.

"I stressed that military victories offer a political opportunity to restore life to normalcy in the northern province and throughout Sri Lanka," he was quoted by the high commission as saying.

"We will work together with the government of Sri Lanka to enable all Sri Lankans, and particularly the Tamil community who have borne the brunt of the effects of the conflict, to lead normal lives as soon as possible."

Separately, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has called on the government troops and rebels to allow immediate and free access to the combat zone for humanitarian workers.

It said the civilian population was paying the price for the conflict.

The ICRC based its figure of hundreds dead on body counts by its staff in local hospitals.

Access for aid workers was so limited, it said, that the ICRC's own presence in the region was virtually meaningless.

The ICRC wanted to evacuate 200 critically wounded people on Tuesday but did not receive security clearance.

Those patients, it says, now face death.

The UN secretary general and the European Union have also expressed deep concern for civilians caught in the fighting.

The military say they are involved in a final push against retreating rebels.

Moving north from the captured rebel town of Mullaitivu, they are trying to secure the north-east coastline to encircle the rebels and say they hope to control the entire north within weeks.

The Tamil Tiger rebels could not be reached immediately for comment.

Access to the combat zone is tightly controlled, making it difficult to verify the actual situation.

Ghost town

The military did take a group of journalists, including the BBC's Chris Morris, to the region on Tuesday.

Brig Nandana Udawatte, who led the capture of Mullaitivu, said that "mortar fire, indirect fire and close-quarter battles" were going on 1.5 km from the town of Puthukkudiyiruppu.

Pro-rebel sources have previously accused the army of killing hundreds of civilians with shellfire - allegations the military denies.

Our correspondent says that apart from soldiers on every corner in Mullaitivu, it is a ghost town. Most of the buildings, houses and shops are damaged or destroyed.

He says its capture is a big victory for the army but that the Tigers also appear on the surface undaunted, with the sound of artillery fire not that far away echoing down the empty streets.