(NSI News Source Info) May 14, 2009: At least 3,000 civilians who had been trapped in Sri Lanka’s shrinking war zone managed to flee Thursday, the country’s military said, as its forces claimed to further squeeze the Tamil Tiger separatists in a drive to end the quarter-century-long conflict. 
Photograph released by the Sri Lankan military May 13, 2009 shows what the army says are items including aircraft engines and rotary blades, communication equipment, runway lights and documents they uncovered belonging to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) "air wing" contingent. Shelling killed a Red Cross worker inside Sri Lanka's war zone on Wednesday, the aid agency said, while troops and the Tamil Tigers battled in an intensifying fight to the finish of Asia's longest modern war.
Sri Lankan Army units advanced on the two-square-mile coastal strip from the south, north and west, forcing the rebels into an ever-smaller sliver of jungle, palms and sand, the military said. More than 1,000 civilians waded across a shallow lagoon under rebel fire, the military said in a statement, and hundreds more fled across land to the north.
If the military’s assertion is true, it would be the first time in well over a week that such a large number of civilians had been able to leave the combat zone in Sri Lanka, where the civil war, Asia’s longest, appears to finally be reaching a close with a Tamil Tiger defeat despite rebel denials.
Photograph released by the Sri Lankan military May 13, 2009 shows what the army says are items including aircraft engines and rotary blades, communication equipment, runway lights and documents they uncovered belonging to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) "air wing" contingent. Shelling killed a Red Cross worker inside Sri Lanka's war zone on Wednesday, the aid agency said, while troops and the Tamil Tigers battled in an intensifying fight to the finish of Asia's longest modern war.
Sri Lankan Army units advanced on the two-square-mile coastal strip from the south, north and west, forcing the rebels into an ever-smaller sliver of jungle, palms and sand, the military said. More than 1,000 civilians waded across a shallow lagoon under rebel fire, the military said in a statement, and hundreds more fled across land to the north.
If the military’s assertion is true, it would be the first time in well over a week that such a large number of civilians had been able to leave the combat zone in Sri Lanka, where the civil war, Asia’s longest, appears to finally be reaching a close with a Tamil Tiger defeat despite rebel denials. It has been impossible for news agencies to independently assess the contradictory claims from the government and rebels because outside journalists have been banned.
The United Nations’ acting representative for Sri Lanka, Amin Awad, said that 6,000 civilians had fled Thursday or were trying to flee, but that rebel fire was preventing them, Reuters reported.
The Sri Lankan Defense Ministry said that 4 people were killed and 14 wounded.
A spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees, Sulakshani Perera, said that a total of 196,000 people had fled the conflict zone, most since April 20. About 50,000 civilians, mostly Tamils, are thought to be caught there, along with a holdout force of between 200 and 500 rebel fighters.
Human rights organizations say the rebels are trying to keep the civilians in the conflict zone for use as human shields, and that heavy artillery shelling from government forces was being conducted without sufficient regard for civilian safety. The government has denied using heavy artillery, but satellite images taken May 10 and analyzed independently have found what appear to be new heavy impact craters in the war zone.
The rebels blame the government’s offensive for the civilian casualties. A Web site used by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or L.T.T.E., said Thursday that an estimated 1,700 civilians had been killed in the conflict zone since Tuesday. About 1,400 patients were left without care at the zone’s last remaining hospital, the rebel-run Web site said, as doctors and staff abandoned it and fled into bunkers for safety.
Government doctors confirmed that they had left the makeshift hospital after heavy shelling of it killed some 100 people earlier in the week, news agencies said.
“The medical staff has stopped our service as we are unable to work without a safe environment,” Dr. T. Sathyamoorthy told Reuters by telephone.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said heavy fighting on Thursday had prevented them for a third day from ferrying out wounded people and dropping off relief supplies.
Most people are seeking protection in hand-dug bunkers, making access to scarce food and water even more difficult, and dozens are dying and being wounded each day, the organization said.
“Our staff are witnessing an unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe,” the Red Cross’s director of operations, Pierre Krahenbuhl, said in a statement on Thursday.
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