U.N.: 6,500 Sri Lankans Killed In 3 Months

(AP)  Indian officials took a demand for an immediate cease-fire in Sri Lanka's civil war to the country's president on Friday as the U.N. reported that nearly 6,500 ethnic Tamil civilians were killed in the last three months.

Concern for the safety of the civilians trapped in the ever-shrinking war zone has increased in recent weeks as the government pushed ahead with its offensive to crush the rebels and end the nation's quarter-century civil war.

Brig. Shavendra Silva, a top commander in the conflict zone, said intelligence reports indicated reclusive rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and other top Tamil Tiger officials remain holed up in the sliver of territory still under the guerrillas' control.

On Monday, the military broke through rebel fortifications on the edge of a previously declared "no-fire" zone along the northeastern coast, sparking an exodus of more than 100,000 civilians. The rebels said at least 1,000 civilians were killed in that battle and the Red Cross said hundreds had been killed or wounded.

Neighboring India, under pressure from its own Tamil population in the midst of a national election, sent National Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon to Sri Lanka on Friday to push for a cease-fire. The officials met with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, but details of the meeting were not immediately available.

"We are very unhappy at the continued killing in Sri Lanka. All killing must stop. There must be an immediate cessation of all hostilities," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishu Prakash said in a statement Thursday.

The military said it was pushing ahead with its offensive, engaging the rebels in heavy fighting Thursday in the tiny coastal strip still held by the Tamil Tigers, who once controlled a vast area of northern Sri Lanka.

Doctors Without Borders, a medial relief group, said the civilians pouring out of the conflict zone included large numbers of people who have sustained blast, mine and gunshot wounds.

International rights groups have accused the government of shelling densely populated civilian areas in the war zone and accused the rebels of holding the civilians as human shields. Both sides deny the accusations.

At least 6,432 civilians were killed in the intense fighting over the past three months and 13,946 wounded, according to a private U.N. document circulated among diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka in recent days. The casualties were reported as "verified data" in the document, which was given to The Associated Press by a foreign diplomat Friday.

The U.N. has declined to publicly release its casualty figures and had no immediate comment on the document.

The level of civilian deaths has increased dramatically as the fighting has worn on, according to the U.N. An average of 33 civilians were killed each day at the end of January, a number that jumped to 116 by April, the document reported. More than 5,500 of those killed were inside a government-declared "no-fire" zone, the report said.

Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona said the government took special care to avoid civilian casualties, and said many of those killed were combatants dressed in civilian clothing.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he would send humanitarian experts to Sri Lanka to monitor the situation. The government agreed in principle to accept a team but the details needed to be worked out, said Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe.

More than 106,000 civilians have fled the fighting since Monday, according to the government. The U.N. refugee agency gave similar figures on Friday.

Aid workers and diplomats said the mass exodus of civilians was overwhelming government facilities in the region. The reports cannot be independently verified because journalists are barred from the war zone and the camps for those displaced by the fighting.

"We're very concerned that the humanitarian provisions in place to receive these people are not sufficient to meet immediate needs," said U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss.

The rebels have been fighting to create an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils, who have faced decades of marginalization by governments controlled by the ethnic Sinhalese majority.

[Vision8]

Hmmmmmmm- the US made up a story about WMD in Iraq, went there in the name of destroying terrorism, and in the process, over 100,000 civilians were killed, weren't they? Yet, the US is not even close to catching Bin Laden, and is now shelling civililan areas in Afganistan to 'get' him.
Was CBS asleep during all this? Why only Sri Lanka? Sri Lanka is on the very verge of eliminating terrorism, and panic-stricken Tamil expatriates are clamoring about a non-existent 'genocide' to help get a ceasefire to help the psycopathic terrorist leader Prabhakaran escape.
Sri Lanka is a soverign, unitary country, able to handle its own affairs. Please dont write articles without knowing the true facts.
Sri Laka will not bow down to terror-funded Western politicians' demands to stop war against terror. Did you know Pres. Obama accepted a vast sum of 'campaign' money from a front organization for this manic terrorist organization? See the responses... someone has written about this.

[Vision8]

Please see this video of a British Minister who visited the war-zone in Sri Lanka:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZtl4t7

Panic-stricken Tamil expatriates are clamoring for a ceasefire so that the psychopathic terror leader Prabhakaran can flee. This killer is holding innocent Tamil civilians as a human shield to protect himself. If these people are allowed to go into government-controlled terrority, there would be an automatic 'ceasefire'.

Now, over 120000 innocent Tamils have escaped terror clutches and are safely in govt-controlled terrority. Thousands of expatriate Sinhalese, whom these Tamils accuse of 'discrimination' have already started more than fifty centers worldwide yo collect money and essential items for these innocent Tamils. But, what have the expatriate Tamils done so far for the people they clamored were getting 'killed'? Nothing! Why - because these innocent sufferers let down their cause by escaping the clutches of the terrorists!

Now - dont you smell a rat somewhere? Britain, Canada and other countries: don't get taken in by the lies of these Tamil expatriates. They are just terror-supporters. Soon they'll bring terror-acts into your countries (the seeds have been sown). Watch out!

[ila09]

Srilankan Government along with Indian counterpart engaged in killing of innocent tamil people, world is insisting the Srilankan government to stop the war, inspite of several countries apeal they continue to kill the innocent tamil people with the support of Indian government.

US should pressurise Srilanka and Indian Govt to stop ongoing war.

LTTE is not a terrorist organisation, Govt of India is doing all the disturbances to them by declaring them as a terror organisation. Will they able to tell what type of terror activity they were involved in the last 15 years.

Due to the revenge of Rajiv Gandhi death both the Srilankan and Indian Govt are involved in the genocide ot tamils. It is govt organised terror on tamils by both the countries.

Countries like US, UK, Cananda, Australia should insist both India and Srilanka to stop the war to prevent the innocent suffering. Also, our request to send some officials to ***** the situation. US like countries to involve in peace process to end the war against tamils.

[IdeSilva]

At least 6,432 civilians were killed in the intense fighting over the past three months and 13,946 wounded, according to a private U.N. document circulated among diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka in recent days. The casualties were reported as "verified data" in the document, which was given to The Associated Press by a foreign diplomat Friday.
The U.N. has declined to publicly release its casualty figures and had no immediate comment on the document.

These type of unsubstantiated "comments" from the UN are deliberate. The last such comment from the U.N., which was given world wide publicity and even quoted by Ms. N. Pillay of the OHCHR in Geneva was later said to be not correct. Mr. N. Buhne of the UN in Colombo ,whose office was responsible for this inaccurate number of casulaties and deaths said the following on March 28,2009 - "the UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sri Lanka, Neil Buhne has stated that he is unable to confirm the veracity of the figures of civilian casualties since 20th January 2009 in the conflict area of Mullaitivu District, contained in an official report issued by his Office recently". The UN just made a report which he has acknowledged is not accurate or true.The problem is that the rebuttals of these inaccurate unofficial, annoymous statements are repeated by the world media without any concern for the truth and have become a part of the propaganda of the LTTE. For the CBC to repeat these types of "comments" is to propogate the propaganda of those interested in tarnishing the good name of Sri Lanka. I would ask that the CBC be more discerning.

[Mahinda G]

The document supposedly prepared by the UN claiming that 6432 civilians had been killed and a further 13946 injured in the designated safe zone in the past three months which had been released to AP by a foreign diplomat as verified data is highly questionable to say the least. The UN too has declined to comment on it. I watched Catherine Hogg, UN HR Coordinator briefing the media today, where she said that there were no UN personnel in the 'safe zone'. Was the source of this questionable data the Tamilnet, which is the propaganda arm of the Tamil Tigers. If not, what is the reliable source if any?
One must understand the Tamil Tiger fighters are all not in uniform. Also, people forcibly held back by the Tigers to form a human shield that managed to escape into government controlled areas have informed that they were forced to give up their underage children or one member of each family to replace the fallen Tiger cadres. It is possible that these civilians forced to bear arms lost their lives in battle whilst engaged in combat roles, even though they did not enter the battlefield in military attire, and hence counted as civilians instead of as combatants. Yet other fleeing civilians stated that were engaged by the Tigers to construct earthen bunds or barriers, dig trenches and even lay mines and booby traps. Another fact is that the Tigers directed fire at the fleeing civilians confirmed by both the UN and HR Agencies, unleashed suicide bombers to blow themselves up, and even used a cannon mounted on a tank to fire at the fleeing civilians to stop the outward flow causing death and injury. Accidents too may have been the cause for some injuries in the case of civilians engaged by the Tigers to lay mines and explosives laden booby traps to obstruct the advancing Sri Lankan forces. Two separate 48 hour ceasefires undertaken by the SL forces did not result in any movement of trapped civilians as the Tigers used these occasions to beef up their fortifications using the civilians held hostage by them. Longer pauses called by the UN and the Int'l community would only give room for the Tigers to barter the lives of the civilians for a safe passage out to continue their terrorism and violence with the support of the pro-Tiger diaspora that has been funding them for the past three decades. This is not acceptable to the rest of the Sri Lankan people who have been constantly targeted by the Tigers for the last 30 years in their quest to establish a mono-ethnic fascist state in the north and east by grabbing 35% of the land spread over 2/3rd of the island's coast for resident Tamils numbering less than 4 percent of the total population. The people of the constituent communities from all backgrounds want terrorism brought to an end in Sri Lanka militarily, as all attempts to reach a negotiated settlement has been impossible, as the Tigers did not move one iota from their end goal of a separate state. What is put out by various INGO/NGO, HR agencies and even the UN cannot be trusted as they are known to repeat propaganda put out by the Tigers, or information given by some doctors held hostage who are working in the area under the command of the Tigers.

[mav547166]

If Sri Lanka keeps it up it might be as dangerous as California.