Sri Lanka's government said Sunday it is considering an amnesty for Tamil Tiger rebels who surrender although not for leaders of the insurgency, which is facing defeat after 25 years of civil war.
The rebels, meanwhile, asked Britain and France to keep pushing for a cease-fire after the European nations' recent failure to secure a halt in the fighting to allow civilians to evacuate the war zone.
Sri Lankan troops won control of a fortified embankment and killed several Tamil Tiger rebels in their latest advances into the guerrillas' remaining territory, the defence ministry said yesterday.
The soldiers inched their way across heavily mined terrain in the island's northeast, where the Tigers are holed up with tens of thousands of civilians, the ministry said.
"The LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) suffered heavily during this battle," the ministry said of the clashes on Sunday.
The ministry did not give exact rebel casualties, but said a senior Tiger leader called Thamilendi was among those killed. ,
There was no immediate comment from the LTTE, who are facing defeat after waging a decades-longwarfor a separate Tamil state.
Battlefield claims cannot be verified as the Sri Lankan government bars independent reporters ffonrtraveiling to the frontlines'
An estimated 50,000 noncombatants are trapped in a tiny coastal strip along with the cornered rebels in the island's northeast. A recent United Nations report said about 6,500 civilians were killed in the area during the past three months.
The government has rejected the cease-fire calls, saying it is on the verge of victory.
Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said officials from the attorney general's department are studying the legal basis for a possible pardon for rebels who surrender but a final decision has not been made.
He said any such offer would not be open to rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and others convicted in Sri Lanka for various attacks or wanted in neighbouring India for the 1991 assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
"The leadership will be dealt with under the laws of the country," Samarasinghe said.
Gandhi was blown up by a suspected Tamil Tiger female suicide bomber at an election rally in southern India in apparent revenge for sending a peacekeeping force to Sri Lanka in 1987.
Samarasinghe said the government also plans to offer vocational training for surrendering rebels to help them reintegrate into society.
Tamil Tiger leaders have vowed no surrender. Every fighter is meant to wear a cyanide capsule and syvpaxs. an oa^h .tp, swallow the capsule to avoid capture.