India’s Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee will hold talks with Sri Lankan leaders on the fate of 250,000 civilians trapped by fighting between government forces and Tamil rebels in the north of the Indian Ocean island nation.
India is anxious that the civilians don’t “become hapless victims of the situation,” Mukherjee, who will leave for the Sri Lankan capital Colombo today, told reporters in New Delhi. He will have discussions tomorrow with Sri Lankan leaders including President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
India’s Tamil parties are putting pressure on the federal coalition government in New Delhi to persuade Sri Lanka to end a military offensive against the rebels and allow civilians to escape the conflict. A political party in India’s southern Tamil Nadu state, which has about 73,000 Sri Lankan refugees, spurned an invitation from Rajapaksa to visit his country to persuade the rebels to surrender.
Sri Lanka’s army captured the main bases of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam this month as it tries to end the 26-year conflict in the South Asian nation. The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross have called on the government and rebels to protect the civilian population.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi should visit areas captured from the LTTE in the Jaffna Peninsula and Wanni this month to persuade the rebels to surrender, Rajapaksa said on the government’s Web site yesterday.
‘Lay Down Arms’
“If Karunanidhi is interested in a cease-fire, he can persuade the Tamil Tigers to lay down their arms,” Rajapaksa said in a newspaper interview, according to the government.
Karunanidhi’s Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam party, which governs Tamil Nadu state, rejected Rajapaksa’s invitation.
“It is for the government of Sri Lanka to act accordingly. Why should we go?” T.K.S. Illangovan, a spokesman for the party, said in a phone interview from the state capital, Chennai. “We are not in any way supporting the Tamil Tigers. We are worried about the innocent people who are being killed in the cross- fire.”
The party may withdraw from India’s national ruling coalition unless it presses Sri Lanka to end the conflict, the Press Trust of India reported two days ago. Illangovan declined to comment.
India has no sympathies for any terrorist organization, particularly the LTTE, Mukherjee said, adding, “It is a banned organization in India.”
The LTTE should publicly declare its willingness to end the conflict “so that an arms surrender could be worked out in a mutually acceptable way as proposed by Karunanidhi and the Sri Lankan government,” Rajapaksa said.
Artillery Fire
Rajapaksa’s government has rejected reports that army artillery fire has been directed at civilians in so-called safe zones in the north.
The Tamil Tigers, after their military losses, are “resorting to every possible inhuman and barbaric trick, taking cover inside villages in the ‘safe zone,’” the army said in a statement on its Web site yesterday.
More than 300 people have been killed by army shelling in Wanni, the LTTE’s TamilNet news agency said.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said yesterday the protection of civilians is the “immediate and absolute priority,” according to a statement on the UN Web site.
“The government and the LTTE must ensure that all people, including the displaced, are treated in accordance with international humanitarian law,” Ban said. No-fire zones and safe areas must be respected, he said.
Troops Advancing
Army units two days ago captured Mullaitivu township, the last major Tamil Tiger base in the northeast, the military said.
Troops are advancing on Challai lagoon, the last stronghold of the LTTE’s naval unit, known as the Sea Tigers, the Defense Ministry said today.
The military says it has driven the Tamil Tigers into a 400- square kilometer (160-square mile) area in the northeast. It estimates the LTTE has only about 1,000 fighters left after its political headquarters in Kilinochchi was captured on Jan. 2. Some defense analysts say the number of Tamil Tiger fighters is higher and the group is resorting to guerrilla warfare in the jungle terrain of the north.
The military is targeting the jungle bases of LTTE commanders, including the group’s leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran. Army Chief Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka said last week Prabhakaran may have fled Sri Lanka and police in Malaysia are on a nationwide alert after reports he may have entered the country, the New Straits Times newspaper reported on Jan. 22.
Prabhakaran is in Sri Lanka leading his forces and reports he fled are “malicious propaganda,” B. Nadesan, the political head of the LTTE, said, according to the British Broadcasting Corp.
The LTTE won’t surrender, Nadesan said in a telephone interview with the BBC’s Sinhala service.
“In the past, we have withdrawn many times and bounced back to achieve big victories,” he said.
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India is anxious that the civilians don’t “become hapless victims of the situation,” Mukherjee, who will leave for the Sri Lankan capital Colombo today, told reporters in New Delhi. He will have discussions tomorrow with Sri Lankan leaders including President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
India’s Tamil parties are putting pressure on the federal coalition government in New Delhi to persuade Sri Lanka to end a military offensive against the rebels and allow civilians to escape the conflict. A political party in India’s southern Tamil Nadu state, which has about 73,000 Sri Lankan refugees, spurned an invitation from Rajapaksa to visit his country to persuade the rebels to surrender.
Sri Lanka’s army captured the main bases of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam this month as it tries to end the 26-year conflict in the South Asian nation. The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross have called on the government and rebels to protect the civilian population.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi should visit areas captured from the LTTE in the Jaffna Peninsula and Wanni this month to persuade the rebels to surrender, Rajapaksa said on the government’s Web site yesterday.
‘Lay Down Arms’
“If Karunanidhi is interested in a cease-fire, he can persuade the Tamil Tigers to lay down their arms,” Rajapaksa said in a newspaper interview, according to the government.
Karunanidhi’s Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam party, which governs Tamil Nadu state, rejected Rajapaksa’s invitation.
“It is for the government of Sri Lanka to act accordingly. Why should we go?” T.K.S. Illangovan, a spokesman for the party, said in a phone interview from the state capital, Chennai. “We are not in any way supporting the Tamil Tigers. We are worried about the innocent people who are being killed in the cross- fire.”
The party may withdraw from India’s national ruling coalition unless it presses Sri Lanka to end the conflict, the Press Trust of India reported two days ago. Illangovan declined to comment.
India has no sympathies for any terrorist organization, particularly the LTTE, Mukherjee said, adding, “It is a banned organization in India.”
The LTTE should publicly declare its willingness to end the conflict “so that an arms surrender could be worked out in a mutually acceptable way as proposed by Karunanidhi and the Sri Lankan government,” Rajapaksa said.
Artillery Fire
Rajapaksa’s government has rejected reports that army artillery fire has been directed at civilians in so-called safe zones in the north.
The Tamil Tigers, after their military losses, are “resorting to every possible inhuman and barbaric trick, taking cover inside villages in the ‘safe zone,’” the army said in a statement on its Web site yesterday.
More than 300 people have been killed by army shelling in Wanni, the LTTE’s TamilNet news agency said.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said yesterday the protection of civilians is the “immediate and absolute priority,” according to a statement on the UN Web site.
“The government and the LTTE must ensure that all people, including the displaced, are treated in accordance with international humanitarian law,” Ban said. No-fire zones and safe areas must be respected, he said.
Troops Advancing
Army units two days ago captured Mullaitivu township, the last major Tamil Tiger base in the northeast, the military said.
Troops are advancing on Challai lagoon, the last stronghold of the LTTE’s naval unit, known as the Sea Tigers, the Defense Ministry said today.
The military says it has driven the Tamil Tigers into a 400- square kilometer (160-square mile) area in the northeast. It estimates the LTTE has only about 1,000 fighters left after its political headquarters in Kilinochchi was captured on Jan. 2. Some defense analysts say the number of Tamil Tiger fighters is higher and the group is resorting to guerrilla warfare in the jungle terrain of the north.
The military is targeting the jungle bases of LTTE commanders, including the group’s leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran. Army Chief Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka said last week Prabhakaran may have fled Sri Lanka and police in Malaysia are on a nationwide alert after reports he may have entered the country, the New Straits Times newspaper reported on Jan. 22.
Prabhakaran is in Sri Lanka leading his forces and reports he fled are “malicious propaganda,” B. Nadesan, the political head of the LTTE, said, according to the British Broadcasting Corp.
The LTTE won’t surrender, Nadesan said in a telephone interview with the BBC’s Sinhala service.
“In the past, we have withdrawn many times and bounced back to achieve big victories,” he said.
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