& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Lanka accuses aid groups of seeking to prolong war

Army shelling civilians, say Rights group

AP, AFP, Colombo/ New Delhi
Sri Lanka's military yesterday accused "a vicious coalition" of international aid groups of harbouring terrorists and seeking to prolong the island's civil war for economic gain.
The military has come under increasing international criticism as it pushes to end the J decades-old war with the Tamil Tiger rebels, who are pinned in a shrinking war zone in the Island’s northeast.
Aid groups haw accused the military of shelling "no- fire” zones set up to harbour the tens of thousands of civilians trapped by the fighting, a charge the military denies.
The military, in a statement posted on the Ministry of Defence Web site, said aid groups operating in Sri Irinka had "hoodwinked" the world and did not want the war to end "to secure their income through a continued
bloodshed."
The statement said the war had "been well engineered and blessed by a vicious coalition of local and international bodies other than the UTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)."
Indiscriminate army shelling is killing dozens of civilians every day in a no-fire zone in northern Sri Lanka where Tamil Tiger rebels are staging a last stand, a rights group said yesterday.
"We receive reports of civilians being killed and wounded daily in the no-fire zone, while (he Sri Lankan government continues to deny the attacks," said Brad Adams, Asia director at New York-based Human Rights Watch.
The Tamil Tigers’ use of civilians as human shields "adds to the bloodshed, Adams said.
Human Rights Watch said as many as
150,000 Tamil civilians remained trapped in the narrow stretch of coastal territory where the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been cornered by a massive military offensive.
According to the UN, more than 2,BOO civilians may have been killed and more than 7,240 injured in the fighting since January 20.
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay recently warned that both sides in the conflict could be guilty of war crimes and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to halt army shelling.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is the formal name of the rebels.
Tie only group named in the statement was CARE International, which said last week that one of its local workers was killed in a "no-fire" zone when a shell severed his leg and he was unable to get medical care.