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Tigers killing civilians fleeing war zone: UN

World body fails in its duty to protect innocent people, say rebels

AFP, Colombo
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels lashed out at the United Nations on Tuesday after it accused them of shooting civilians who try to escape the island s bloody ethnic conflict.
The UN said theTigers have detained tens of thousands of non-combatants inside rebel-held territory and have "shot and sometimes killed" those crossing the battle lines to seek safety.
A front organisation for the rebels, who have
been cornered in the jungle by government troops, countered the allegations by saying the United Nations had failed in its duty to protect innocent people.
The UN was "withdrawing even the remaining few local staff from the conflict zone (and) completely shedding its responsibility of caring for the civilians trapped here," said the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO).
The statement, released on the pro-rebel website Tamilnet, came after the UN said that "a growing number of people trying to leave have been shot and sometimes killed”.
The TRO, which Is outlawed in several countries, including the US, said the UN had levelled its harsh criticisms to hide "their own failures".
Tiger leaders have always denied charges that their fighters kill civilians or hold them as "human shields".
The UN also said die rebels had recruited 14-year-old child soldiers, and were detaining 15 UN staff and their dependents inside the conflict zone.
Government forces, who appear on the verge of crushing the rebels' 30-year campaign for an independent Tamil homeland, have said they are advancing with caution to avoid causing civilian deaths.
The International Committee of die Red Cross (ICRC) on Tuesday reported that families were arriving at a designated "safe zone" inside rebel territory "in a state of utter exhaustion and despair".
"But the reality is that there is an almost complete lack of medicine and relief items there," said Paul Castella, head of the ICRC in Sri Lanka.
"We did save lives today but
many people remain behind, helpless and anxiously waiting to be evacuated. It is now a matter of life and death."
In Monday's statement, the UN urged both the Sri Lankan military and the Tigers to bring the war to a humane end so that civilians, including many children, would be spared.
The UN said it welcomed the new, larger "safe zone" for civilians along the coastline, but noted there had been fighting even there.
"This fighting led to the deaths and injury to yet more civilians,"itsaid.
"The UN calls for the Sri Lankan forces and the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) to refrain from fighting in areas of civilian concentration."
The UN, the United States and Britain have asked the Tigers to allow civilians to leave the conflict zone while urging the government in Colombo to declare a temporary truce. Both have rejected the calls.
On Saturday, the defence ministry accused the Tigers of a grenade attack that killed a woman and wounded 13 people who were trying to flee the shrinking area still under rebel control.