SRI LANKA:INTENSE FIGHTING in Sri Lanka between the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) and the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) has resulted in 67 Tiger deaths over the last five days, according to the Sri Lankan military.
The offensive by the SLA against the town of Kilinochchi, the de facto capital of the Vanni, an LTTE-controlled region in northern Sri Lanka, has also raised fears for the many civilian refugees trapped by the fighting.
The Sri Lankan government accuses the Tigers of holding refugees inside the Vanni as "human shields". It has dropped leaflets requesting that refugees make their way south into SLA territory. However, few have done so.
Speaking on Tuesday, government military spokesman Brig Gen Udaya Nanayakara confirmed that the SLA is within six kilometres of the Kilinochchi, but is meeting fierce LTTE resistance.
Fighting has occurred on multiple fronts, primarily southwest of Kilinochchi and but also further north, toward Pooneryn, in recent days. Some "tens of thousands of refugees" surround Kilinochchi, according to both UN and Sri Lankan government figures. Yesterday, sources within the Vanni confirmed that shells were landing three kilometres from Kilinochchi. Air raids and helicopter gunship attacks were occurring regularly.
All international NGOs have now withdrawn from the Vanni, amid protests from local Tamils who fear not just the withdrawal of aid but of western witnesses. The NGOs have pulled out because the Sri Lankan government has told them that it can no longer guarantee their safety.
The Red Cross has remained in the Vanni. According to spokeswoman Sarasie Wijeratne: "The most pressing needs of the internally displaced persons are security, health, water, sanitation and food. No large-scale health problems have been reported, but the approaching monsoon rains are a cause for concern."
This bitter ethnic war has claimed some 4,000 lives since the breakdown of a Norwegian brokered ceasefire in 2006.
As the SLA began its advance on LTTE-controlled areas, the LTTE resumed its attacks including suicide bombings, suicide raids on military installations and attacks on infrastructure throughout Sri Lanka.
Tamils addressing the British Labour Party conference on Monday accused the Sri Lankan government of "genocide" against the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
On Tuesday, Sri Lanka's president Majinda Rajapakse defended his army's advance before the UN General Assembly in New York stating that his government "could not . . . let an illegal and armed terrorist group, the LTTE, to hold a fraction of our population, a part of the Tamil community, hostage to such terror in the northern part of Sri Lanka".
Kilinochchi is the last major urban area controlled by the LTTE. Since July 2007, they have lost control of the major towns of Batticaloa, Trincomalee and of Mannar province. The capture of Kilinochchi could eventually allow the linking of the SLA-controlled Jaffna peninsula with the remainder of Sri Lanka. It would also confine the LTTE to Mullativu, a dense jungle area of northeastern Sri Lanka.