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Sri Lanka rejects calls for ceasefire
Agence France Presse - May 15, 2009
Amal Jayasinghe, Colombo – Sri Lanka has rejected international calls to halt its offensive against Tamil rebels only hours after the United Nations Security Council called for civilian lives to be spared.
Human rights groups and foreign governments, including the United States, have become increasingly vocal in their calls for a ceasefire to allow trapped non-combatants to escape, but Colombo remained unmoved.
"We are not going to succumb to international pressure to stop the offensive," said the Information Minister, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, who argued that Sri Lanka was being unfairly targeted.
"In Pakistan and Afghanistan there are similar conflicts but no one is asking them to have a peace agreement or a ceasefire," he told reporters. "There is no international pressure there. Why only target us?"
Mr Abeywardena's comments followed a statement issued late on Wednesday by the UN Security Council urging both sides to "ensure the safety of civilians" and "respect their obligations under international humanitarian law".
The Sri Lankan authorities estimate that up to 20,000 civilians are being held in the small north-eastern pocket of coastal jungle where Government troops have cornered the rump of the once-powerful Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The United Nations has said as many as 50,000 may be trapped – huddled under plastic sheeting, in shallow bunkers and with little food, water or medical facilities.
The statement agreed by the UN Security Council had been put forward by France, Britain and Austria, who had lobbied hard for the world body to address the "appalling" crisis.
On Wednesday, more than 50 people were killed when three shells slammed into a makeshift hospital inside the conflict zone, doctors at the facility said. At least 47 civilians had been reported killed in a similar assault on the hospital the day before, while weekend shelling was described by the UN as a "bloodbath".
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