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| Sri Lanka |
| 43 Tamil rebels killed, thousands flee war zone |
| 2009-04-23 |
| [Bangla Daily Star] Sri Lankan soldiers have pushed deep into the sole remaining Tamil rebel enclave and killed 43 guerrillas while nearly 82,000 civilians have fled the northern war zone within the last 72 hours, the military said yesterday. Troops in recent months have ousted the rebels from all their former strongholds and hemmed them into what the government previously deemed a "no fire" zone to protect civilians. But troops entered the 20 sq km zone this week to fight remaining rebels and free civilians trapped there. Meanwhile, thousands more civilians fled Sri Lanka's war zone Wednesday as troops pushed deeper into the Tamil Tiger rebels' sliver of remaining territory and the government vowed again that the end to the 25-year-old conflict was near. The latest photographs released by the military showed people arriving at beaches carrying their belongings in bundles on their heads. Mothers held infants and some carried sick relatives as they disembarked from the boats they used to flee the fighting. The navy has been escorting those vessels into government territory. The UN and humanitarian groups called for an immediate stop to the fighting, so more civilians could escape. Over the past three days, the military says more than 80,000 have fled after forces broke through a key rebel embankment protecting their territory. The Sri Lankan military said it broke through a key rebel bunker in the coastal strip on Monday and that tens of thousands of civilians have been fleeing the area since then. By Wednesday, 81,423 civilians had escaped, the military said. Troops advanced deep into the zone and captured a part of during fighting with insurgents on Monday and Tuesday, killing at least 43 rebels, said Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara, the military spokesman. Tamil rebels are cornered into a stretch of about eight kilometers, he said. Army commandoes attacked a car carrying rebels and killed four Tuesday, while another four insurgents were killed by commandoes in a separate attack, Nanayakkara said. Other 35 rebels were killed in separate attacks on Monday and Tuesday. He said government forces also suffered casualties, but did not provide details. "We suffered casualties because we are not using heavy and long-range weapons. We only use small weapons," Nanayakkara said, accusing rebels of firing artillery shells. The UN estimates that more than 4,500 civilians have been killed in the past three months and has called for a negotiated truce to allow others to leave the shrinking rebel-held enclave. On Tuesday, the rebels accused the government of killing 1,000 civilians in their latest offensive a charge the military denies. Dr Thangamuttu Sathyamurthi, one of the few doctors working in the war zone, said the bodies of 80 civilians were brought to two makeshift hospitals soon after Monday's raid but said more people were probably buried on the spot. Fighting continued Wednesday and shells fell near a Roman Catholic church, wounding a priest and killing three civilians who had pitched their tents in the church compound, Sathyamurthi said. The military denies targeting the civilians or using heavy weapons at populated areas. "We suffered casualties because we are not using heavy and long-range weapons. We only use small weapons," Nanayakkara said, accusing the rebels of firing artillery shells. It is not possible to confirm accounts from the war zone because independent journalists are barred from entering it. The United Nations, many countries and human rights groups have expressed grave concerns for the remaining trapped civilians, fearing the government may launch an all-out assault soon after giving the rebels a 24-hour ultimatum to surrender. The deadline expired Tuesday with no response from the rebels. The Red Cross said civilians could face a "catastrophic" situation under such a military assault. Amnesty International urged the government and rebels on Wednesday to "take all necessary measures immediately to prevent unlawful killing of civilians and ... fully comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law." It was impossible to get independent accounts from the war zone because journalists are barred from going there. The UN estimated more than 4,500 civilians have been killed in the past three months. The rebels said more than 1,000 civilians died Monday in a government raid, but the military denied the allegation. Human rights groups say the rebels are holding many people in the enclave against their will and using them as human shields. Those groups have also accused the government of indiscriminate shelling in the region. Both sides deny the allegations. The number of fleeing civilians made it clear that the government had vastly underestimated how many people were caught in the fighting. While aid groups had estimated that about 100,000 civilians were trapped ahead of this week's exodus, the government had said the figure was only about 40,000. The US government released satellite images Tuesday showing about 25,000 tents housing civilians squeezed into the last small strip controlled by the rebels. The State Department estimated about 125,000 people were in the conflict zone before the exodus over the past two days. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 "We've got to protect our phoney-baloney jobs!" |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-04-23 23:55 |
| #3 #2 Did anybody consider the possibility that there might be less suffering in the long run if the Sri Lankan army is allowed to finally bring this war to an end? But it'll cost the UN and dozens of NGOs hundreds of jobs that could be saved if Sri Lanka agreed to a cease-fire. So what if the civil war goes on another ten or twenty years - those cushy jobs will be secure! |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2009-04-23 22:30 |
| #2 Did anybody consider the possibility that there might be less suffering in the long run if the Sri Lankan army is allowed to finally bring this war to an end? |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2009-04-23 11:52 |
| #1 End games are always sorrowful and bloody. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2009-04-23 11:22 |