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Colombo rejects call for temporary halt to fighting

— Photo: AP

An ethnic Tamil girl in hospital in Puthukkudiyiruppu in this photo released by independent observers on Wednesday.

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake on Thursday rejected calls for a temporary halt in fighting in the north but said the government would consider amnesty to Tiger cadre who surrendered unconditionally.

Speaking in Parliament, Mr. Wickremanayake also claimed forces had surrounded the last hideouts of the LTTE in Mullathivu.

The Prime Minister’s announcement came in response to requests from the international community to enable safe passage to an estimated 1.2 lakh civilians trapped in the war zone.

“The last moment of Tigers will be painful as well as decisive,” Mr. Wickremanayake told Parliament amid claims of capture of the last Sea Tiger base and death of the Deputy Chief, called Vinayagam, of the Sea Tigers along with three others.

According to the military, with the capture of Chalai, the last Sea Tiger base, the Tigers were now confined to an area less than 100 sq. km.

The Prime Minister told Parliament that there were reports of some of the Tigers wanting to surrender. “We are ready to accept anyone who will embrace democracy by giving up arms. We have said that from the beginning,” he said.

Mr. Wickremanayake also said the Tigers were trying to escape by mingling with civilians and troops were searching the jungles for LTTE chief Vellupillai Prabakaran.

Separately, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa made it known that the offer to consider rehabilitation on unconditional surrenders applied only to Tiger cadre and not the top rung against whom serious charges were pending.

Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama on Thursday accused the LTTE of using the safe zone to launch their heavy artillery, causing civilian casualties.

In a statement in response to a call by the Co-Chairs for a temporary halt in fighting, Mr. Bogollagama reiterated the position that “military activities are aimed solely at eradicating terrorism”.

The Minister said after nearly three decades of fighting the ruthless LTTE, proscribed in several countries, Sri Lanka was “at a juncture at which the military is gaining control of all areas in the north” and the government was fully aware of the need to look after the welfare of the civilians who were being held as human shields by the LTTE.

Separately, the military said 1,282 civilians crossed over from the LTTE-held area on Wednesday and Thursday. It added the in-charge of the LTTE land fighting group known as Kader and Sea Tigers Pooneryn area leader know as Pahalawan were also killed. Sea Tiger special leader known as Sinna Kannan was killed in a separate confrontation north of Chalai.

The pro-LTTE TamilNet in a report alleged that the only remaining hospital in Udaiyaarkaddu within the so-called safe zone had again come under heavy shelling by the Army on Thursday killing seven civilians and wounding 27 others.

“Two ambulances were destroyed and the medical store of the hospital has been completely destroyed….Medical authorities said at least 500 civilians were killed and 2,000 wounded within the last 3 weeks,” the website claimed.

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