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Thousands of civilians trapped in Lanka war

Govt media, aid groups for siding with Tigers

AFP, Colombo
Sri Lanka yesterday accused international media and aid groups of siding with the Tamil Tigers, a day after an angry mob stoned the offices of the international Red Cross in the capital Colombo.
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were infiltrating relief agencies and news organisations and disseminating false information.
"There is a well-orchestrated campaign to discredit the government and the security
forces and bring pressure on it to declare a ceasefire by LTTE agents who have infiltrated international organisations and media institutions," Rajapakse told the state- run Daily News.
Rajapakse said people allegedly in the pay of the Tigers were "fabricating stories to invent a scenario of a human catastrophe and are disseminating false information."
Fhe defence secretary's comments came as the military captured more bases from the rebels and said it had bombed the main hideout of the top SeaTiger leader, Soosai. Ihe rebel leaders whereabouts were not known after the air attack on Friday, which the defence ministry said killed at least 11 rebels.
Colombo has rejected calls from foreign governments and agencies to halt its offensive against the LTTE to avoid civilian casualties, saying it is on the verge of victory.
Sri Lanka has also resisted calls for a "no fire period" to allow civilians to get out of the conflict zone, while rights groups and foreign governments have accused the Tigers of holding civilians as a human shield.
The defence secretary is leading the government's crackdown against the Tigers, who lost their mini-state last month in the face of the military offensive that has pushed the rebels back to a narrow strip of land.
His comments came after he threatened to expel aid agencies, diplomats and foreign journalists seen as supportive of the LTTE.
UN agencies have said there arc 250,000 civilians trapped by the fighting in the northeast of the island, but Rajapaksc, the younger brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksc, said there were fewer than 100,000.
Military officials have said some 7,500 civilians have crossed over to the safety of government-held areas this year.
On Friday, a stonethrowing mob attacked the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Sri Lanka's capital,
as Colombo accused the agency of inciting panic over civilian deaths from the fighting.
Government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said the ICRC had placed an order for 35,000 body bags to be used in the northeast.
ICRC spokeswoman Sophie Romanens confirmed an order for body bags but rejected the figure provided by Rambukwella.
"We help in the transfer of bodies of combatants across the front lines and for this we need body bags, but the number we have ordered is far, far less than 35,000," she said.
The ICRC has a presence in Sri Lanka's embattled northeast and has also acted as a neutral intermediary in transporting the remains of combatants across front lines.
Those front lines were moving rapidly on Friday, with the military taking more bases from the Tamil Tigers, who have been pushed back into a thin patch of coastal jungle in Mullaittivu.
Military officials said at least another 25 rebels had been killed in separate confrontations with ground troops on Friday.
There was no immediate comment from the Tigers, but the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website said the guerrillas had launched several counterattacks in the Mullaittivu district this week and seized weapons from troops.
The rebels said they had killed more than 100 government troops in a week of heavy fighting, but did not give their own losses.