COLOMBO, (Reuters) – Sri Lankan soldiers battled into the last redoubt of the rebel Tamil Tigers yesterday as the exodus of people fleeing the war zone reached more than 62,000, the military said.
The International Commit-tee of the Red Cross warned the situation was “nothing short of catastrophic” and urged both sides to prevent further mass casualties among civilians, saying hundreds had been killed in the past 48 hours.
The neutral agency did not assign blame to either side.
The operation gathered speed after the military’s noon (0630 GMT) deadline for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to surrender passed without any word from the separatists, in what appears to be the final act in Asia’s longest-running war.
The LTTE hours later vowed no surrender, despite being massively outgunned by a military built up to wipe them out and finish a conflict that has percolated since the early 1970s but erupted into full-blown civil war in 1983.
“LTTE will never surrender and we will fight and we have the confidence that we will win with the help of the Tamil people,” Seevaratnam Puleedevan, secretary-general of the LTTE peace secretariat, told Reuters by telephone.
Sri Lanka’s military, in what it dubbed the world’s largest hostage rescue operation, went in to keep the stream of people moving and give troops a clear shot at the LTTE and its elusive leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran.
“So far 62,600 people have come out and still they are coming,” military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said. Earlier, he said soldiers had reached the beach, which meant they had divided the Tigers’ last remaining area into two.
He denied civilians were being harmed.
The Tigers’ Puleedevan said Prabhakaran, the guerrilla who since the 1970s has single-mindedly led a fight for a separate nation for Tamils, was directing the fight in what the army set up as a no-fire zone, but is now a last battleground.
After the conventional end of the war, Sri Lanka will face the challenges of healing divisions between the Tamil minority and Sinhalese majority, and boosting a $40 billion economy suffering on many fronts including a weakening rupee.
But yesterday for the second day running, the Colombo Stock Exchange gained on positive investor sentiment over the war effort and was at a more than two-month high.
Sri Lanka is seeking a $1.9 billion International Monetary Fund loan to ease a balance of payments crisis and boost flagging foreign exchange reserves, which Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said should be finished soon.
The United Nations and Western governments have urged the military to renew a brief truce to negotiate the civilians’ exit, a plea the government has rejected on the grounds the Tigers have dismissed all entreaties to let the people out.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa again turned down Britain’s attempt to send a special envoy and ruled out any pause in military action during a phone call with Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday, the president’s office said.
