The Ceylon News

Washington, March 17: Sri Lankan Ambassador to the US Jaliya Wickramasuriya Tuesday asked the LTTE to immediately release the UN staff members and three children who were forcibly detained by them last week in the conflict zone.

"The LTTE does not respect any international law, or even the rights of human dignity," Wickramasuriya said in a statement issued here.

"If the terrorists will kidnap United Nations workers and their family members, the world can better understand how they treat innocent Sri Lankan civilians who are trying desperately to flee the conflict zone and seek safety," he said.

Wickramasuriya noted the children are protected under Sri Lankan and international law from recruitment by armed groups.

He said this action by the Tamil Tigers is yet another example of the ruthless nature of the terrorists and the lengths the LTTE will go to achieve their lawless aims.

The incident over the weekend occurred in the government declared "No Fire Zone" in the northern part of the country. Another UN staff member was detained two weeks ago and has not been released despite repeated requests from the international community, he said.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa says Sri Lanka will not bow to IMF conditions

Sri Lanka will not accept any conditions on a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the island's president has said.

"We will not pawn or sell our motherland to obtain any monetary aid," said Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The Sri Lankan government is in talks with the IMF about a $1.9bn (£1.4bn) loan to help combat the economic downturn and pay for reconstruction.

The IMF usually insists on conditions for any emergency loans.

No forced measures

These involve taking steps such as cutting public spending or raising interest rates.

But Sri Lanka has made it clear it will not be forced into taking any such measures.

"Neither will we bow to any conditions or transform our land to a colony," Mr Rajapaksa is quoted as saying in the local, state-controlled Daily News newspaper.

The country has been hit by slowing tea and textile exports that have depleted the country's foreign currency reserves.

It also needs money to pay for reconstruction work in the north and east of the island after recent fighting with Tamil Tiger rebels.

Sri Lanka's central bank also believes that an IMF loan would encourage other institutions to offer monetary support, as well as boosting international investors' confidence in the island.

The bank said it expects government negotiations with the IMF to be completed by the end of March.

On Monday, Serbia announced a 2bn euro ($2.6bn; £1.85bn) loan from the IMF.

Sri Lanka will not accept any conditions on emergency loans it receives from the International Monetary Fund, the island's president was quoted Tuesday as saying.

Sri Lanka announced earlier this month that it had become the latest nation to seek help from the IMF to help it through the global economic downturn.

"We are absolutely clear. We will not pawn or sell our motherland to obtain any monetary aid from the IMF or any other international agency," President Mahinda Rajapaksa was quoted as saying by the state-controlled Daily News newspaper.

"Neither will we bow down to any conditions or transform our land to a colony," he was quoted as telling a meeting new government employees.

The government is currently in talks with the IMF about an emergency loan worth $1.9 billion.

In the past, the IMF has required countries to take steps such as cutting public spending and raising interest rates in exchange for emergency funds. The IMF has closed its Sri Lankan office and IMF officials were not immediately reachable.

The island's central bank has said an emergency loan would help the country weather the global financial crunch and pay for reconstruction in the north and east, where the army says it is close to defeating Tamil Tiger rebels.

It says the injection would also encourage other "development partners" to step forward with assistance and would boost investors' confidence in the island nation's economy.

The government has softened its opposition to an IMF bailout as slowing exports and the costs of the 25-year civil war weigh on the economy. Slowing tea and textile exports have depleted the country's foreign currency reserves and undermined the Sri Lankan rupee.

IMF support would "supplement the government's efforts to stabilize the external sector performance of the country, and enable the country to face the times ahead with greater confidence and certainty," the bank said in a statement earlier this month.

The central bank says it expected the government to finish the IMF negotiations by the end of March, and that significant part of the loan would be released soon after that.

Sri Lanka's army is trying to take over rebel strongholds in the area

Intense fighting is going on between Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tiger rebels in north-eastern Sri Lanka.

The military says at least 36 rebels have been killed in ferocious battles in Mullaitivu district on Monday.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says another ship with food items for civilians has reached the conflict zone.

The Tigers have been driven from most of the territory they held by an army offensive over recent months.

They are now cornered in a small patch of jungle and coastal area in the Mullaitivu district.

It is estimated that between 70,000 and 200,000 civilians are caught up in the conflict zone.

The Tamil Tigers have fought for an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority since 1983.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the war.

The fighting in north-eastern Sri Lanka has become more intense and ferocious as the army attempts to capture the remaining rebel strongholds in Mullaitivu, the military says.

In renewed clashes, troops have destroyed many rebel positions in the Puthukudiyiruppu region.

The army says so far they have recovered at least 14 bodies of the rebels killed in the latest fighting.

"Security forces also captured a one-km-long Tiger earth bund in the southeast of Puthukudiyiruppu following clashes," military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara told the BBC.

He said some army units were now less than a kilometre from the safe zone set up to protect civilians, which is situated inside the rebel-controlled territory.

The Tamil Tigers have not reacted and there is no independent confirmation of the military's version of events.

The escalation in fighting in north-eastern Sri Lanka comes amid increasing international concern over the condition of tens of thousands of civilians caught up in the conflict zone.

Meanwhile, the ICRS says another ship with 500 metric tonnes of food items has reached the conflict zone in the north-east.

This is the second ship sent to the area in recent weeks.

"The ship arrived off the coast of Putumatalan in the north-east this morning (Tuesday) and has started to offload its supplies. It will take several days to finish the work," ICRC spokeswoman Sophie Romanens said.

The World Food Programme, which has sent most of the food along with some government supplies, says 500 metric tonnes of food will be sufficient for a 100,000 people for about 10 days.

The United Nations and witnesses say hundreds of civilians have been forced to fight or build defences against a military onslaught in the war zone
The United Nations said yesterday Tamil Tiger rebels forcibly recruited another of its local workers in Sri Lanka’s war zone along with three dependents of UN staff, including a 16-year-old girl.
The UN said the forced conscriptions came at the weekend, when nearly 2,000 people fled Sri Lanka’s shrinking war zone as troops fought towards the final showdown in a 25-year war with the separatist Tamil Tigers.
It is the second time the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have forced a UN worker into its ranks. The UN and witnesses say hundreds of civilians have been forced to fight or build defences against a military onslaught.
“The UN in Sri Lanka has protested to the LTTE that UN national staff, as well as children in general, are protected under national and international law from recruitment by armed groups, and has called for their immediate release,” a UN statement said.
Sri Lanka’s military has encircled the LTTE in 30sq km (12sq mile) of the Indian Ocean island’s northeast, where aid agencies say there are tens of thousands of people trapped in increasingly desperate circumstances.
The United Nations has said some 2,800 have been killed in heavy fighting since the end of January. The government rejects those numbers as unsubstantiated.
By yesterday, soldiers were said to be within a kilometre of a no-fire zone where the government says there are 70,000 people. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) puts the number at 150,000 civilians.
“They (troops) are closing into the safe zone in certain areas,” military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. At least seven Tigers were killed on Sunday, he said.
He said 902 people came on foot to army-held areas on Sunday, while another 62 fled by boat. On Saturday, 1,015 came out, more than 420 of them by boat with the assistance of the ICRC.
Among those who came out on Sunday was one of 15 UN workers forcibly kept in the war zone by the Tigers, a UN spokesman said.
“The wife of a UN staff member was injured by an anti-personnel mine while escaping with the staff member and their two children,” spokesman Gordon Weiss said.
She was being treated at hospital in Vavuniya, a northern town where the military and most aid agencies base their headquarters for operations in the war zone.
The military’s Nanayakkara declined to say what the military’s plan was for helping civilians get out of the no-fire zone, a thin 12km coastal strip bounded by water on two sides.
The Defence Ministry said in a statement that army snipers were killing LTTE fighters sent to shoot fleeing people.
The UN has urged a halt to fighting to let people get out. The government has rejected the call, but says it will guarantee safe passage for civilians.
The LTTE says people are staying of their own free will, despite witness accounts saying the rebels were shooting people trying to flee. It accuses the government of shelling people.
The government denies that and says it has stopped using heavy weapons against Tiger artillery positions located there, and is taking more casualties as a result.
The Tigers are on US, EU, Indian and Canadian terrorist lists. They have been fighting a civil war since 1983 to establish a separate homeland for Sri Lanka’s minority Tamils. Reuters