COLOMBO: Sri Lankan soldiers battled into the last redoubt of the Tamil Tigers on Tuesday, and an exodus of people trapped by the rebels in the coastal strip reached nearly 50,000, the military said.
The operation gathered speed after the military's noon (0630 GMT) deadline for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to surrender passed without any word from the separatists, in what appears to be the final act in Asia's longest-running war.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned the situation was "nothing short of catastrophic" and urged both sides to prevent further mass casualties among civilians, saying hundreds had been killed in the past 48 hours.
The neutral agency did not assign blame to either side. Sri Lanka's military, in what it dubbed the world's largest hostage rescue operation, moved in to keep the stream of people moving and give troops a clear shot at the LTTE and its elusive leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran.
"So far 49,054 people have come out and still people are coming in. Troops are expanding the area under their control," military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said.
The United Nations and western governments have urged the military to renew a brief truce to negotiate the civilians' exit, a plea the government has rejected on the grounds the Tigers have dismissed all entreaties to let the people out.
The state-run Daily News, quoting army commander Lt-Gen. Sarath Fonseka, said soldiers had reached the shoreline and taken control of the only medical facility in the no-fire zone, a makeshift hospital run by the ICRC in Puttumatalan.
ICRC RAISES FEARS
ICRC said it feared the operation could lead to a drastic increase in the number of casualties.
"The situation is nothing short of catastrophic. Ongoing fighting has killed or wounded hundreds of civilians who have only minimal access to medical care," Pierre Kraehenbuehl, director of ICRC operations, said in a statement.
At least 50,000 people remain inside the no-fire zone, ICRC spokesman Simon Schorno said in Geneva.
The military said the number is less than that but has no updated figure. Before the exodus, it had said around 60,000 were in the area.
The stream of people leaving started on Monday after troops breached an earthen berm blocking the main route out of a 17 square km (6.5 sq mile) no-fire zone, the last scrap of the separate state the LTTE fought to build for Sri Lankan Tamils.
The presence of tens of thousands of civilians has been the main obstacle for the Sri Lankan military, which has cornered the rebels with the aim of finishing a war that erupted in 1983 and has killed at least 70,000 so far.
With the war now nearing a conventional end, Sri Lanka will face the twin challenges of healing the divide between the Tamil minority and Sinhalese majority, and reviving a $40 billion economy suffering on multiple fronts.
The island nation is seeking a $1.9 billion International Monetary Fund loan to shore up a balance of payments crisis and boost flagging foreign exchange reserves, half of which were spent defending the rupee in the last four months of 2008.
TAMILS PROTEST
The final operation set off protests by expatriate Tamils in London and Paris, the latest in weeks of demonstrations against the military offensive by Tamils in cities across the world.
In Paris, around 180 people were arrested and four injured when the demonstration turned violent as protesters blocked an intersection and threw objects at buses and police, police said.
The LTTE insists people are staying with them by choice, and on Monday the pro-LTTE website www.TamilNet.com reported a large number of people had fled towards Tiger areas.
TamilNet also said nearly 1,000 were killed in the assault, quoting LTTE political head B Nadesan. The military denies killing civilians.
The United Nations has long said the LTTE was forcibly preventing people from leaving and forcing others to fight.
Late on Monday, Sri Lanka's military released a video shot by an unmanned drone, which it said showed several hundred people in a tight cluster along the shore being fired at by LTTE fighters.
A few seconds later, two people outside the cluster aim and fire what appears to be a rifle toward the people several times. Muzzle flashes are visible in the video, which the military said was taken near the northern border of the no-fire zone on Monday.
It was impossible to independently verify the competing accounts since the battle zone is off-limits to most outsiders.
Soruce:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
The operation gathered speed after the military's noon (0630 GMT) deadline for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to surrender passed without any word from the separatists, in what appears to be the final act in Asia's longest-running war.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned the situation was "nothing short of catastrophic" and urged both sides to prevent further mass casualties among civilians, saying hundreds had been killed in the past 48 hours.
The neutral agency did not assign blame to either side. Sri Lanka's military, in what it dubbed the world's largest hostage rescue operation, moved in to keep the stream of people moving and give troops a clear shot at the LTTE and its elusive leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran.
"So far 49,054 people have come out and still people are coming in. Troops are expanding the area under their control," military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said.
The United Nations and western governments have urged the military to renew a brief truce to negotiate the civilians' exit, a plea the government has rejected on the grounds the Tigers have dismissed all entreaties to let the people out.
The state-run Daily News, quoting army commander Lt-Gen. Sarath Fonseka, said soldiers had reached the shoreline and taken control of the only medical facility in the no-fire zone, a makeshift hospital run by the ICRC in Puttumatalan.
ICRC RAISES FEARS
ICRC said it feared the operation could lead to a drastic increase in the number of casualties.
"The situation is nothing short of catastrophic. Ongoing fighting has killed or wounded hundreds of civilians who have only minimal access to medical care," Pierre Kraehenbuehl, director of ICRC operations, said in a statement.
At least 50,000 people remain inside the no-fire zone, ICRC spokesman Simon Schorno said in Geneva.
The military said the number is less than that but has no updated figure. Before the exodus, it had said around 60,000 were in the area.
The stream of people leaving started on Monday after troops breached an earthen berm blocking the main route out of a 17 square km (6.5 sq mile) no-fire zone, the last scrap of the separate state the LTTE fought to build for Sri Lankan Tamils.
The presence of tens of thousands of civilians has been the main obstacle for the Sri Lankan military, which has cornered the rebels with the aim of finishing a war that erupted in 1983 and has killed at least 70,000 so far.
With the war now nearing a conventional end, Sri Lanka will face the twin challenges of healing the divide between the Tamil minority and Sinhalese majority, and reviving a $40 billion economy suffering on multiple fronts.
The island nation is seeking a $1.9 billion International Monetary Fund loan to shore up a balance of payments crisis and boost flagging foreign exchange reserves, half of which were spent defending the rupee in the last four months of 2008.
TAMILS PROTEST
The final operation set off protests by expatriate Tamils in London and Paris, the latest in weeks of demonstrations against the military offensive by Tamils in cities across the world.
In Paris, around 180 people were arrested and four injured when the demonstration turned violent as protesters blocked an intersection and threw objects at buses and police, police said.
The LTTE insists people are staying with them by choice, and on Monday the pro-LTTE website www.TamilNet.com reported a large number of people had fled towards Tiger areas.
TamilNet also said nearly 1,000 were killed in the assault, quoting LTTE political head B Nadesan. The military denies killing civilians.
The United Nations has long said the LTTE was forcibly preventing people from leaving and forcing others to fight.
Late on Monday, Sri Lanka's military released a video shot by an unmanned drone, which it said showed several hundred people in a tight cluster along the shore being fired at by LTTE fighters.
A few seconds later, two people outside the cluster aim and fire what appears to be a rifle toward the people several times. Muzzle flashes are visible in the video, which the military said was taken near the northern border of the no-fire zone on Monday.
It was impossible to independently verify the competing accounts since the battle zone is off-limits to most outsiders.
Soruce:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
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