Colombo: The Sri Lankan government says it is about to defeat the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the country’s north and won’t end the military conflict with the rebels yet.
Sri Lankan Foreign Affairs Secretary Palitha Kohona on Sunday told CNN-IBN his country is capable of helping the thousands of Tamil civilians caught in the war zone and it won’t accept third-party intervention to resolve the crisis.
“I think we are as close as we have ever been; it could be a matter of hours or days. I don't want to put a timeline on it, but we will pursue this goal until the civilians are rescued,” said Kohona, who alleged that the rebels are holding civilians against their will.
“It is the LTTE that created the crisis, so it's very important to recognise that what the Sri Lankan security forces are doing is simply engaging in exercise of rescuing the civilians. The military broke through the LTTE’s defences last week and released 1,07,000 people. Now there may be 15,000 or 20,000 people still being held against their will, and I hope the military will be able to rescue them as soon as possible.”
The Sri Lankan army officer in charge of rescuing Tamil civilians in the war zone said the military was moving “cautiously” to avoid civilian deaths. “We are in the process of rescuing civilians. We have to go about it very slowly because we want to make sure that there is zero casualties to civilians,” said Brigadier Shavinder Silva.
The Sri Lankan officials’ statements come at a time when the United Nations' top humanitarian official began a three-day mission in Sri Lanka on Sunday, seeking access to some 50,000 civilians trapped and reportedly starving in the country's sealed-off war zone.
UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes said he hopes to persuade the Sri Lankan government to suspend its assault and allow a humanitarian team into the conflict zone, where the civilians are caught between government forces and the beleaguered Tamil Tiger rebels.
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