Sri Lanka claims last rebel area taken

[Warped]

(CNN) -- Sri Lankan government soldiers seized the last remaining coastal stretch under the control of Tamil Tiger rebels, the Ministry of Defense said Saturday, marking a possible end to a quarter-century-long fight in the island nation.

The seizure marks the total capture of coastline territory previously controlled by the rebels, the government said, after army divisions advanced from the north and south to link up.

No formal declaration of victory is expected at least until the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa returns to the country from Amman, Jordan, where he is attending the World Economic Forum.

On Friday, the Navy arrested the wife of Soosai, a leader of Sea Tigers -- the ocean-going arm of the rebel group. His daughter and son-in-law were also arrested.

Navy officials, quoting those who were arrested, said Tamil Tigers leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is believed to be inside the area of the latest fighting. Other sources have said he has escaped.

The rebels -- formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- have fought for an independent state for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka since 1983.

As many as 70,000 people have been killed since the civil war began.

In a rapid military push, Sri Lankan forces had squeezed Tamil Tiger fighters into approximately 1.5 square miles (four square kilometers) of coastal land. The United Nations estimates that more than 50,000 civilians are trapped there. Video Watch iReporter Thileepan's footage of the "safe zone" »

An Army source told CNN that about two square kilometers in the region remain to be captured and that military officials expect that to take a couple of days.

"The government is moving forward in extremely difficult circumstances. After all, the ... Tamil Tigers are seeded amidst the middle of all these civilians. It's very difficult to weed out and identify who is a fighter and who is not," said Gordon Weiss, a U.N. spokesman.

"It makes it very very dangerous for civilians, and it explains the very large toll on civilian life that we've seen at this point."

Weiss called the fighting a "bloodbath" at the beginning of the week.

Humanitarian aid groups have reported mass civilian casualties in the fighting.

The situation had worsened by Friday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said. It suspended evacuation and medical rescue operations in the no-fire zone. Aid agencies had been stuck offshore, unable to deliver badly needed relief supplies and evacuate civilians.

"Our staff are witnessing an unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe," said Pierre Krahenbuhl, the ICRC's director of operations. "No humanitarian organization can help them in the current circumstances. People are left to their own devices."

The U.N. Security Council and U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday called for both sides to protect civilians and allow humanitarian aid into the conflict zone.

In a statement at the White House, Obama urged Sri Lankan government troops to halt the "indiscriminate" shelling of civilians trapped with the remnants of the country's Tamil Tigers. He also prodded the rebels to stop using civilians as human shields.
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Security Council members issued a statement demanding "that all parties respect their obligations under international humanitarian law."

A Red Cross worker was killed Wednesday during shelling in the conflict zone in Sri Lanka -- the third aid worker killed in six weeks -- the Red Cross said.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/05/16/srilanka.fighting/index.html

this war is almost as long as the modern Israeli War with Palestine. glad to hear most of it is over.

 

[Azner]

There's this website, AVAAZ, sent me an email asking for a ceasefire (As in to sign a petition) because the civilians were getting hurt.

Considering what happened the last time they tried a ceasefire i sent an angry letter back that they should view the situation more clearly, and what they were doing was totally wrong. Was i right?

 

[Eejit]

The civilians living in those areas have all been supporting the LTTE for years, either directly or indirectly via their taxes. They could have moved away before the terrorists began to lose, or before the government troops got so close.
I still empathise with them a little, but basically it's their own bloody fault they're in the middle of this.

 

[<RJMC>]

I doubt it will stop

the tamil tigers sure will still operate but maybe as terrorist group rather than rebels

also since it seems the goverment of sri lanka attacked a lot of civilians probably the hate will still be strong

also the tamil tigers are one of the most inovatives rebels groups,they build homemade minisubs to attack subs and even home made airplanes for suicide attacks that where used in a attack in the capital some time ago

 

[DEATHMASTER]

[strike]Shangrila[/strike] Shri Lanka was in battle?

 

[Eejit]

Yeah Deathmaster, only the longest-running war in modern history.

I doubt it will stop

the tamil tigers sure will still operate but maybe as terrorist group rather than rebels

Like they haven't operated as terrorists up until now? Thousands of civilian deaths in bomb attacks, suicide bombings, ethnic cleansing in LTTE-controlled territory, assassinations, kidnappings.

also the tamil tigers are one of the most inovatives rebels groups,they build homemade minisubs to attack subs and even home made airplanes for suicide attacks that where used in a attack in the capital some time ago

They also popularised suicide bombings as a tactic and invented suicide belts.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Guess when wars run long enough, you stop hearing shit about'm.

 

[repiV]

The part of London where I spent most of my life has, IIRC, the highest Tamil population in the world outside Sri Lanka so I've heard plenty of stories about government attacks on their homes etc, and many families had fled for their lives.

I suppose there are two sides to every story. They don't get banned as a terrorist group for nothing.

 

[Eejit]

The government have hardly been saints either, but there are plenty of lines the LTTE has crossed which they haven't.

 

[repiV]

I have no doubt. I'm glad not to have to be caught in the middle of that whole sorry business anymore.

To quote an old friend of mine, "I hate Singhalese people". Good to know that other people's battles are being played out in our cities.

 

[Jintor]

Guess when wars run long enough, you stop hearing shit about'm.

Depressing huh

 

[Minister]

Guess when wars run long enough, you stop hearing shit about'm.

To be honest, that's almost entirely true.

The media will often completely focus on relatively trivial issues, such as MP's expenses, whilst completely ignoring such events like the war in Sri Lanka.

 

[repiV]

I would hardly call the systematic and calculated defrauding of the taxpayer, and by extension, betrayal of the nation, by our elected representatives, trivial.

 

[Eejit]

He said relatively. Compared to the deaths of thousands and the culmination of a bloody war which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands it is small fry.

 

[repiV]

I disagree. Far away conflicts don't really affect us, we don't need to know every little detail about them.

We do need to know that our MPs are fraudulent and dishonest to an extent that would not look out of place in a banana republic. And we need to know very much about that.

Shit happens all the time. Some of it is more relevant to us than other shit.

 

[Eejit]

I wasn't saying it's more important to the UK in real terms than the expenses scandal (though it could be if it causes mass immigration from more Tamil asylum seekers ), but death on such a scale deserves more coverage than it has been receiving compared to revelations than SHOCK! - Politicians Are ****s! stories which have been dominating 90% of all media for weeks on end.

 

[Bob_Marley]

Glad to hear its over. The Tigers have noone but themselves to blame for the civilian casualties in the final offensive as the Government forces had held a cease fire to allow the civilians to leave but the tigers did not permit it.

 

[Warped]

I disagree. Far away conflicts don't really affect us, we don't need to know every little detail about them.

We do need to know that our MPs are fraudulent and dishonest to an extent that would not look out of place in a banana republic. And we need to know very much about that.

Shit happens all the time. Some of it is more relevant to us than other shit.

I hope your being sarcastic. Far Away conflicts do have a small effect on their local areas and leaders ability to sustain a problem. take for instance Canada. If they had a civil war right now, basically it would greatly effect the USA. It has an area of effect much greater than what they show you on TV.

 

[repiV]

I wasn't saying it's more important to the UK in real terms than the expenses scandal (though it could be if it causes mass immigration from more Tamil asylum seekers ), but death on such a scale deserves more coverage than it has been receiving compared to revelations than SHOCK! - Politicians Are ****s! stories which have been dominating 90% of all media for weeks on end.

The expenses scandal deserves to dominate the media for weeks on end. Enough of self-serving career politicians who defend claims on my paycheque that would get them fired or imprisoned in any other line of work. It's time for change.

Tax evasion is now the moral duty of any good citizen.

Of course war and genocide deserve good news coverage, but at the end of the day, it isn't going to make any noticeable difference whatsoever to my life or your life if five thousand people are killed in Sri Lanka or five million. Yes, it sounds harsh, but it's not something that we need to know in quite the same way.

I hope your being sarcastic.

No, I'm not being sarcastic.

Far Away conflicts do have a small effect on their local areas and leaders ability to sustain a problem. take for instance Canada. If they had a civil war right now, basically it would greatly effect the USA. It has an area of effect much greater than what they show you on TV.

Um. Canada isn't far away from the USA. They're your neighbours!
Sri Lanka is the other side of the world from the UK, and aside from the large immigrant population here, what happens there doesn't really affect us in any meaningful way.

 

[Eejit]

Of course war and genocide deserve good news coverage, but at the end of the day, it isn't going to make any noticeable difference whatsoever to my life or your life if five thousand people are killed in Sri Lanka or five million. Yes, it sounds harsh, but it's not something that we need to know in quite the same way.

It might. My girlfriend is Sri Lankan. Some of your friends are from there. Their relatives still in the country are affected. Who knows what the LTTE will do with their back to the wall? It's kind of a scary time.

 

[repiV]

It might. My girlfriend is Sri Lankan. Some of your friends are from there. Their relatives still in the country are affected. Who knows what the LTTE will do with their back to the wall? It's kind of a scary time.

True, but as I said aside from the large immigrant population. The point being that the most important news is the news that directly concerns us. It's not a case of ranking world horrors on a scale of 1 to 10 and deciding news priorities that way.

 

[Eejit]

No, but I think we can agree it deserves more coverage than it's getting.

 

[repiV]

Indeed.

 

[Eejit]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8055015.stm

That ****ing bastard Prabhakaran is dead. Game over man, game over!

 

[Azner]

Score one for Sri Lankan government.

Now for them to life the University application biasness agaisnt the Tamils.

 

[nurizeko]

I'm with RepiV, I think the UK as a whole is probably more concerned about our corrupt politicians then a multi-decade long war thats probably been raging longer then many of us have been alive.

The only difference between this noe and others is that this one happens to be coming to a, perhaps momentary, close.


IMO good job Sri Lankan government.