Tamil Tigers urge UK to push for truce
Sri Lanka’s separatist rebels have asked Britain and France to continue pushing for a ceasefire in the island’s civil war after the two European nations’ foreign ministers failed to secure a halt in the fighting to allow civilians to evacuate.
The Tamil Tiger rebels’ political head, Balasingham Nadesan, wrote yesterday to British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, saying the insurgents are ready to “engage in the process to bring about a ceasefire and enter into negotiations for an enduring resolution to the conflict”.
Excerpts of Mr Nadesan’s letter were e-mailed to news organisations.
International concern has grown in recent weeks about the fate of an estimated 50,000 non-combatants trapped in a tiny coastal strip along with the cornered rebels. A recent United Nations report said about 6,500 civilians were killed in the area during the past three months.
Mr Miliband and Mr Kouchner visited Sri Lanka last week to press for a truce, but the government refused to let up its offensive, saying it is on the verge of crushing the rebels’ decades-old separatist war.
Pressure for a ceasefire is only likely to increase after a pro-rebel website reported yesterday that government forces shelled a makeshift hospital in the war zone, killing 64 patients and bystanders.
A government doctor working there confirmed the death toll but declined to say who was responsible for the attack.
The government denied the report. Though it has refused to call off its troops’ advance, it did promise not to use heavy weapons in the densely packed conflict zone, where it says the rebels are holding civilians to use as human shields in their final stand.
The rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils, who have suffered decades of marginalisation by successive governments controlled by majority ethnic Sinhalese. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.
In his letter, Mr Nadesan sought “recognition and the support” from the world community for their fight.
The rebels are banned by the US and the European Union as a terrorist organisation.
