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Operation coming to an end: Rajapaksa

— Photo: AFP

Displaced Tamil civilians in a hospital in Vavuniya on Thursday.

COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan military on Thursday said it was less than a kilometre from the remaining part of the No-Fire Zone (NFZ) where the LTTE top brass and cadre had been holed up holding an estimated 20,000 civilians as hostage even as President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced that “humanitarian operations” in the North are coming to an end.

At a specially-convened meeting of the diplomatic community based here, Mr. Rajapaksa said the war with the LTTE was rapidly nearing its conclusion and hoped that democracy would flourish in the North again.

Mr. Rajapaksa told the envoys that his only concern was the well-being and safety of the civilian population presently in the NFZ and those displaced people in the cleared areas. He appealed to the international community to join hands with Colombo in the daunting task of tending to the immediate need of the displaced and pressure the Tigers to surrender arms and free stranded civilians.

Nearly 2,00,000 civilians, who have crossed over into the government territory in the last few months, are accommodated in 44 temporary camps spread over the districts of Vavuniya, Mannar and Jaffna.

The military believes that the LTTE leaders, Velupillai Prabakaran and members of the top brass of the organisations, are hiding among the civilians. The question uppermost on everyone’s mind is can Prabakaran slip out after encircled from all sides by the military and the Navy.

The Defence Ministry said here troops advanced towards Karayamulliavaikkal and captured a part of the LTTE-built earth bund early on Thursday following heavy confrontations.

Mr. Rajapaksa told the diplomats that his government was in the process of completing a Master Plan for a long-term reconstruction of the war ravaged region.

“While eliminating terrorism militarily and freeing the remaining hostages from the LTTE, a sustainable political solution based on a Sri Lankan agenda is in the process of being worked out. The All Party Representative Committee is formulating a set of political proposals which would be submitted once the environment is free of terrorism”.

He told the gathering that the government expected to conduct Local Government Elections in the Jaffna and Vavuniya areas very soon and steps were being taken to call for nominations early May.

Separately, the pro-LTTE TamilNet in a feature by an unnamed political commentator said the U.S. had a responsibility to set right the balance disturbed by it “by a timely action such as sending the fleet without waiting for political changes in India”.

“It is the last chance for U.S. to strike a political balance in the island, if it is really keen in seeing meaningful ‘post-conflict’ process”, said the political commentator.

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