Group items tagged

A senior Sri Lankan official ­today estimated the civilian death toll from the last stages of the war with the Tamil Tigers as 3,000 to 5,000 and defended the use of mortars in a government-designated ­"no-fire zone".

Rajiva Wijesinha, permanent secretary in Sri Lanka's ministry of disaster management and human rights, rejected reports that 20,000 civilians were killed as the army overran the Tigers. He also rejected an unpublished UN report that 7,000 people had been killed by the end of April.

Brad Adams, the Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said: "The government told people to go to the no-fire zone. They were packed into a small area. Then they fired on them, with 81mm mortars and other weapons. And they denied again and again they were using these weapons … there is very strong evidence that they did commit war crimes."

Trapped inside a tiny coastal strip no larger than 20 sq km, the last fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are almost out of time. Since the start of the year, the Sri Lankan military has stepped up its campaign. Outgunned, they have fallen back to an area designated a "no-fire zone", where civilians were told to gather to escape the fighting. In the past week, more than 500 rebel fighters were reported killed.

Alongside the LTTE fighters are tens of thousands of civilians, unwilling or unable to leave. The Sri Lankan government says they are being used as human shields, and independent humanitarian workers say there is no doubt that many who tried to escape have been shot by the Tigers. One UN worker described how a five-year-old boy was shot in the head as he tried to flee

The military says that, even when surrounded, many Tigers refused to surrender. Asked to explain how more than 500 Tigers had been killed in the most recent fighting, against an official military death toll of just 11, Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, the military spokesman, said the rebels had been cut off and were unable to get fresh supplies: "They were pretty much out of ammunition, but they were determined to fight to the end. It was hand-to-hand fighting."

Reports are emerging from inside Sri Lanka's internment camps of brutal revenge being taken against Tamil Tiger fighters and the abduction of young children by paramilitary groups.Detainees in one of the camps told the Guardian that a number of female Tamil Tigers have been murdered after giving themselves up to the authorities.The bodies of 11 young women were allegedly found with their throats slashed outside the Menic Farm camp near the town of Vavuniya, according to people being held behind the razor wire perimeter

aid workers say there is also a growing resentment among inmates in the camps against the LTTE over its treatment of the civilian population in the final months of the fighting and that many of the female cadres now shut inside are living in fear of reprisals.

A Tamil Tiger spokesman has accused the Sri Lankan government of shelling civilians and wreaking carnage during its military offensive in the north. The government has denied the allegations, in turn accusing the rebel group of targeting civilians. It said that by midday (0630 GMT) nearly 50,000 civilians had fled the Tamil Tiger-held area.

The pro-rebel TamilNet website said several hundred civilians were feared killed and injured after troops advanced into the zone. Tamil protesters held angry demonstrations in Paris and London on Monday against the army operations. About 180 people were arrested in Paris as the protest there turned violent.

The Sri Lankan military has denied shelling civilians inside the rebel-held area. Brig Nanayakkara told the BBC that only small-arms had been used. He said the Tigers were targeting civilians because they knew that if non-combatants left, the rebels would be "sitting ducks". The army says three rebel suicide bombings had targeted fleeing civilians, killing 17.

he government says 100,000 people have fled since Monday's military push. An estimated 60,000 people had already fled in recent months.

A UN document being circulated around diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka estimates that nearly 6,500 civilians have died and 14,000 have been injured.

On Thursday, the representative of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Colombo, Amin Awad, called on the Sri Lankan government to allow pauses in the fighting so the necessary work could be completed.

Sri Lankan troops will no longer use heavy weapons or air strikes in fighting against Tamil Tiger rebels in the north-east, the government says. The statement said the army would focus on trying to rescue civilians. Concern has been rising over civilian deaths. The rebels are boxed in to a shrinking patch of land which they share with thousands of civilians. On Sunday the government dismissed a Tamil Tiger ceasefire offer as a "joke" and said the rebels were near defeat.

"Our security forces have been instructed to end the use of heavy calibre guns, combat aircraft and aerial weapons which could cause civilian casualties," the statement said. "Our security forces will confine their attempts to rescuing civilians who are held hostage and give foremost priority to saving civilians." However, the pro-rebel TamilNet web site reports that air strikes have continued since the announcement.

No confirmation of the reports is possible as independent journalists are not allowed into the war zone.

Sri Lanka's defence secretary has rejected the Tamil Tigers' offer to enter a democratic process after their military defeat by government forces.In an interview with the BBC, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said the LTTE rebels could not be trusted to give up "terrorism". The rebels had said they would give up violence after their leader was killed in recent fighting in the north-east.

The UN has complained that the government has been blocking humanitarian aid.

Mr Rajapaksa - the most senior civilian official in charge of the war against the Tamil Tigers - told the BBC in a wide-ranging telephone interview that he was "not interested in LTTE at all." He said: "I do not believe the LTTE can enter a democratic process after years of their violent activities." He added that there were "enough democratic Tamil political parties in the country" to represent the Tamil minority.

investigators uncovered evidence that LTTE fighters gunned down civilians who they believed were trying to escape and that government troops threw grenades into bunkers where they knew civilians were sheltering and used a vehicle to run over injured civilians. There are also allegations that wounded civilians may have been bulldozed into mass graves along with the dead.The most controversial claim, however, is that the government authorised a massacre of LTTE cadres after persuading them to surrender.