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Sri Lankan civilians trapped as Tamil Tigers face annihilation
The Times - April 6, 2009
Jeremy Page – In the bloodiest battle in the past year, about 6,000 troops captured the northeastern region of Puthukkudiyiruppu after surrounding a group of rebels on the edge of the safety zone, who the military said were "facing annihilation".
"It was close combat – fighting from house to house, street to street in an area full of underground bunkers that had been built up over the course of 20 or so years," Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. "The battle is over now – we are just clearing the area and our main concern is how to rescue the civilians inside the safety zone."
An estimated 200 hardcore Tigers and several hundred poorly trained young recruits are now holed up with the civilians inside the no-fire zone – a 8sq mile (20sq km) strip of land along a beach, he said. Thought to be among the rebels are Velupillai Prabhakaran, their charismatic leader, and his son, Charles Anthony, who was reported to have been wounded last week.
There was no immediate comment from the Tigers and it was impossible to confirm the army's claims because most independent journalists and aid workers are not allowed near the front line.
The latest fighting is sure to heighten concerns about the 150,000 civilians – mostly ethnic Tamils – who the UN and Red Cross estimate are trapped inside the safety zone.
The Government says that there are fewer than 50,000 civilians there and accuses the Tigers of holding them against their will, forcing some to fight, while using others as human shields.
Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, backed international calls for restraint on Friday, amid reports of serious abuses by both the army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), as the guerrillas are officially known.
"The Secretary-General calls upon the LTTE leadership to allow civilians to leave the conflict area of their own free will," he said. "At the same time, the Secretary-General again reminds the Government of Sri Lanka of its responsibility to protect civilians, and to avoid the use of heavy weapons in areas where there are civilians, as promised."
The Government has not revealed how it plans to defeat the rebels in the safety zone, where it says they have been building fortifications. But Lieutenant-General Sarath Fonseka, the army chief, told the state-run Sunday Observer newspaper that tens of thousands of civilians would soon be rescued from the zone.
The Government had hoped to declare a military victory over the Tigers by April 14, which is the Sinhalese and Tamil new year, but officials now say that they may need another three weeks. The Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for an independent homeland for the Tamil minority to protect them from discrimination at the hands of the Sinhalese majority.
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