by Melani Manel Perera

According to the army the rebels have no more escape routes. The president had promised to end the 25 years of war by this evening. The Tigers and their families flee by mixing among refugees. Rumours of a possible “mass suicide”. The Humanitarian crisis persists.

Colombo (AsiaNews) – Sri Lanka’s army says troops belonging to the 58 and 59 Divisions have taken control of the entire Island’s coastline, trapping the Tamil rebels in a tiny pocket of territory and cutting off any escape.

Meanwhile, over the past day and a half an estimated 16 thousand civilians have succeeded in escaping from the war zone and have made there way to the government controlled areas.

President Rajapaksa, who is currently aboard, had vowed to defeat the remaining rebel fighters, the territory and end the 25-year-old civil war by tonight.

It is impossible to verify reports from the area because it is closed to journalists.  Local sources say that the leader of the Tigers, Velupillai Prabhakaran, could have travelled abroad in search of international support for his cause, leaving his second in command, Kumaran Pathmanathan.

Government sources claim that many of the rebels and there families are trying to escape by hiding themselves among fleeing civilians.  The navy yesterday discovered the identity of the wife, son and daughter, sister in law and nephew of the leader Susai, nicknamed “Sea Tiger”. The Ministry for Defence has also warned that the Tamils are ready to carry out a “mass suicide”, but there is no independent confirmation of this.

The army has declared that yesterday alone, over 10 thousand refugees escape the war zone.  The UN Security Council has expressed its concern for the fate of the thousands of civilians and the worsening of this “humanitarian crisis”.

 

• sri
• lanka
• tamil
• tigers
• war
• civilians
• refugees
• un
• security
• council
• humanitarian
• crisis