COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (AP) - More than 2,100 civilians fled in one day from Sri Lanka’s northern war zone where the military is squeezing the Tamil Tiger rebels into a smaller area as it pushes to end 25 years of civil war, the military said Friday.
The displaced, including 900 children, crossed over Thursday to military-controlled areas in Puthkkudiyirippu, near the edge of the front lines in the northeast of the island, said military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara.
It was the largest number of civilians to flee in a single day in several weeks, Nanayakkara said.
An average of 1,000 civilians a day have fled the area in recent weeks, highlighting the danger they face as the military has driven the rebels into just 8.4 square miles (21 square kilometers) of jungle and beach on the northeastern coast.
In a statement posted on its Web site Friday, the military said it killed 29 rebels. It said 13 were killed in a battle near Puthkkudiyirippu, while army snipers killed another 16. It did not say when the clashes took place.
The area on the coast includes a so-called “no-fire” zone, but the United Nations and aid groups have accused the rebels of firing from the zone and of forcing tens of thousands of terrified civilians to go with them, sometimes using them as human shields.
Government troops have been accused of shelling the zone. The government denies the charges. The area is off limits to the media, and the rebels, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, could not be reached for comment because communication with its stronghold has been cut.
On Thursday in New York, John Holmes, the U.N.’s top humanitarian official, said the international organization estimates 150,000 to 190,000 civilians are trapped by the fighting and cannot escape, resulting in dozens of deaths each day.
Amnesty International on Friday became the latest group to call for a cease-fire to allow the civilians to leave. The government has said the rebels must lay down their arms first for there to be any stop in the fighting. The rebels have used cease-fires in the past to rearm and regain strength.
“We cannot stress enough the importance of an immediate pause to allow the displaced to leave before thousands more are killed,” Sam Zarifi, director of the Asia Pacific region at Amnesty International, said in a statement.
The statement said the Tigers were holding civilians hostage and was “reported to have deliberately attacked civilians that have tried to escape from areas under their control.”
The military says more than 55,000 civilians have escaped since the beginning of January.
All are being put into temporary camps, and the government said Thursday it had decided to transfer the management of camps from the military to a civilian agency, upon the recommendation of Holmes.
International Committee of the Red Cross and U.N. refugee officials will be present when people are screened to make sure they are not rebels, said Minister of Human Rights and Disaster Management Mahinda Samarasinghe.
The Tamil Tigers have a history of forcible recruitment, including of children, since they began fighting in 1983 for an independent state for the Tamil minority, which suffered decades of marginalization at the hands of governments dominated by the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting.
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