The Tamil Tigers on Wednesday denied gunning down civilians streaming out of Sri Lanka’s war zone, and the Red Cross said 16 patients had been killed in shelling.
Tens of thousands of civilians are trapped in a 175-square-km (67 sq miles) area held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), surrounded by a military intent on crushing the separatist rebels and finishing a civil war that started in 1983.
Another 2,260 streamed out of the tiny war zone on Tuesday, keeping up the rapid pace of exodus that started last week, the military said.
On Tuesday, the military accused the LTTE of killing 19 civilians and wounding 69 more trying to flee. Sri Lanka’s government, aid agencies and rights groups say the LTTE has forced Tamils to stay in the war zone, which the rebels deny.
Pro-rebel web site www.TamilNet.com said on Wednesday the rebels blamed Sri Lankan troops for the shooting. The web site quoted C. Ilamparithy, whom it identified as LTTE political chief for the area in question, Puthukudiyiruppu.
"Sri Lankan military machinery, which has relentlessly killed and maimed thousands of civilians during the past four weeks, is now engaged in a propaganda drive to divert the mounting pressure on the Colombo government," TamilNet quoted him as saying.
It is impossible to verify either side’s claims, since the war zone is off-limits to unaccompanied journalists and both sides have engaged in a relentless propaganda duel for years.
"SITTING DUCKS"
For weeks, the LTTE through TamilNet has accused the military of killing civilians, which the government again rejected as a classic ploy of the rebels when they have been cornered throughout the war’s history.
"They know the moment these civilians move out on them, they are sitting ducks and there will be nothing they can do," military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.
More than 50,000 soldiers are converging on the tiny wedge of jungle in northeastern Sri Lanka which is all the Tigers still hold. Analysts say they have no more than 2,000 hardcore guerrillas remaining and are facing conventional defeat.
At least 30,000 people have fled this year, nearly all of them in the past week, according to the military. That is despite a suicide blast blamed on a female LTTE fighter that killed 29 soldiers and civilians at a refugee encampment on Monday.
Aid agencies say 250,000 civilians are caught in the fighting, although the government puts the number at half of that. The United Nations said on Tuesday it was preparing for an exodus of 150,000 people.
Nanayakkara said footage from an unmanned aerial drone (UAV) taken this week showed the rebels were herding people further into their territory, towards the coastline.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Wednesday was preparing to ferry another 140 patients out of the war zone by boat.
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