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Sri Lanka threatens to kick out aid agencies, diplomats

* Military claims capturing two Tiger camps, hints at offensive to ‘liberate’ trapped civilians

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s top defence official has threatened to expel aid agencies, diplomats and foreign journalists seen as supportive of Tamil rebels cornered by troops in the island’s north, a report said on Sunday.

Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse told the Sunday Island that there would be “dire consequences” for any foreign non-government organisation, diplomat or correspondent attempting to give “terrorists a second breath of life”. “They will be chased away (if they try) to give a second wind to the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) terrorists at a time the security forces, at heavy cost, are dealing them the final blow,” Rajapakse was quoted as saying.

Rajapakse is leading the government’s crackdown against the Tigers who lost their mini state last month in the face of a military offensive that has pushed the rebels back to a narrow strip of land. “Rajapakse did not mince his words when he said that some ambassadors, specially the German and Swiss ambassadors, and some news agencies were behaving irresponsibly,” the newspaper said.

German ambassador Jurgen Weerth was recently summoned by the foreign ministry over remarks he made at the funeral of a newspaper editor and outspoken government critic who was killed by unidentified gunmen. Rajapakse accused CNN, Al-Jazeera and the BBC of trying to sensationalise civilian hardships by broadcasting video clips from LTTE websites, the paper said.

Tiger camps: Rajapakse’s remarks came as the Sri Lankan military, according to officials, captured two camps used by the Tamil Tigers’ suicide squad, killing 12 rebels and seizing a large number of weapons. According to the Red Cross, some 250,000 noncombatants are stuck in the 115-square mile area near the northern town of Mullaittivu where advancing government troops have boxed in the separatist Tamil rebels. The government puts the number at about 120,000. “The humanitarian situation is precarious if not critical,” Red Cross spokeswoman Sarasi Wijeratne told The Associated Press.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government, which accuses the Tamil Tigers of keeping civilians in the war zone to use as human shields, had given the insurgents Friday and Saturday to let the noncombatants leave the area. By the time the deadline expired, only 236 civilians had emerged from the battleground to cross the front line into the government-held areas, according to the Media Center for National Security. The military said it would move to “liberate” civilians trapped by fighting with Tamil Tiger forces. “The next step for us is to liberate the civilians,” said military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara. “There will be new operations to get the people to safety now that the Tigers have not allowed civilians to leave,” Nanayakkara said, while declining to specify the nature of any fresh offensive. agencies

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