62,000 flee as troops move in for Tigers showdown

REUTERS - Sri Lankan soldiers battled into the last redoubt of the rebel Tamil Tigers on Tuesday as the exodus of people fleeing the war zone surpassed 62,000 and the United States said the conflict was at a "decisive point".


The International Committee of the Red Cross 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.

Senior U.S. diplomat Michael Owen, speaking in Washington, urged Sri Lanka to allow the international community to monitor what was happening and assure help for trapped civilians.


"The 26-year-old conflict is at a decisive point and we see the potential for major developments witin the next 48 hours," Owen told reporters, urging restraint on all sides.


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 LTTE hours later vowed no surrender, despite being massively outgunned by a military built up to wipe them out and finish a conflict that has percolated since the early 1970s but erupted into full-blown civil war in 1983.


"LTTE will never surrender and we will fight and we have the confidence that we will win with the help of the Tamil people," Seevaratnam Puleedevan, secretary-general of the LTTE peace secretariat, told Reuters by telephone.


Sri Lanka's military, in what it dubbed the world's largest hostage rescue operation, went 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 62,600 people have come out and still they are coming," military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said. Earlier, he said soldiers had reached the beach, which meant they had divided the Tigers' last remaining area into two.


He denied civilians were being harmed.


The Tigers' Puleedevan said Prabhakaran, the guerrilla who since the 1970s has single-mindedly led a fight for a separate nation for Tamils, was directing the fight in what the army set up as a no-fire zone, but is now a last battleground.

...


Sri Lanka provided video taken from unmanned aerial drones Monday showing thousands of people fleeing the area, and what it said were LTTE fighters firing at others trying to get out.


In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said, "We understand there have been incidents of the LTTE firing on and otherwise attacking civilians as they attempt to leave."

Category:

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[TAMiiLSouLjA]

@Tamilwillwin ..annaa 30 years ago leader velu also said " wait & seeeeeee"... and u still waiting? LOL ..paawoom!

SF?..who?..or the one who ass fucked duwarrkaa + madivaadini in frount of velu?

Annaa..will that will this...always will will will..?..what is this" will will will" ? new eelam anthum?

[Tamilwillwin]

@TAMiiLSouLjA ---aiooooo SF is already celebrating it in Wellikada.

Other War crimnals will follow him soon. wait and see

[TAMiiLSouLjA]

@Tamilwillwin aiooooooooooo maaweera day coming, no body celebrating in wanni!

[KolonelKARUNA]

Apr 23 (Reuters) France on Wednesday condemned Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels for preventing civilians from fleeing the country's war zone and called for a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the conflict. Thousands of civilians surged out of the war zone on Wednesday, while soldiers and the LTTE rebels fought the apparent endgame of Asia's longest-running war despite calls to protect those trapped

[KolonelKARUNA]

Visibly there is no limit for your muckter fucker lies.&hiding begging ceas-fire... usualy on lttp do propaganda , i the case of the hiding leaders of lttp All tamils are manipulated to be 100& LIARS ..who can even say Ben Ladden is in VANNI.and UN believe it.You exagerated lies are a proof that lttp are committing GENOCIDE

[Tamilwillwin]

Visibly there is no limit for your muckter fucker lies.... usualy on gvt do propaganda , i the case of the terrorist state of Sri lanka All singalese are manipulated to be 100& LIARS ..who can even say Ben Ladden is in VANNI..You exagerated lies are a proof that you are committing GENOCIDE

[KolonelKARUNA]

These civilians were forced in the hands of those who murder them becasue the lttp is doing a Bomb rain in Vanni area and teh area is dennied to any food and medecine-by lttp--so if this lttp cal this rescueing ....this is a big joke

[Tamilwillwin]

These civilians are forced in the hands of those who murder them becasue the SLA is doing a Bomb rain in Vanni area and teh area is dennied to any food and medecine---so if this Genocidal gvt cal this rescueing ....this is a big joke