The Sri Lankan government yesterday offered an amnesty to Tamil Tiger forces who surrender, but refused to contemplate peace talks, vowing instead to crush those rebels who fight on.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake told parliament that some rebels were ready to lay down their arms as they face imminent defeat in their decades-long battle for an independent ethnic Tamil homeland.
“It is a wise decision and we are ready to welcome them,” Wickremanayake said.
However, the government made it clear that it rejected international calls for negotiations to end the fighting, which has triggered global concern over civilian casualties.
The defense ministry said that 700 more civilians had fled rebel-held areas yesterday, where it says 120,000 are still being held by the Tigers as “human shields.”
The UN reported at least 52 non-combatants were killed in a single shelling earlier this week — though it did not say who was responsible — and said cluster bombs had been used in the attack.
The government denied it had cluster bombs, but said the Tigers were known to have them.
“Nothing short of unconditional surrender of arms and cadres could bring an end to the offensive,” Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse told the Island newspaper yesterday.
Rajapakse said Tuesday’s statement by the quartet known as the co-chairs was a “transparent attempt to save the Tigers.”
The co-chairs said the military had encircled the rebels in the island’s northeast and the Tigers were close to collapse after losing over 98 percent of the territory that was under their control a year ago.
Meanwhile, Sri Lankan government troops yesterday captured the last known Tamil Tiger naval base in the northeast of the island, a military official said.
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