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End this bloodbath in Sri Lanka,
cries out UN
WSN Network
COLOMBO: It is a
message the world was waiting to hear for so long, and which perhaps
took criminally long to come from the world body. The United Nations
has called for an immediate end to fighting in
Sri Lanka
after describing the weekend shelling of civilians as a "bloodbath"
in which over 100 children were killed.
UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the
Colombo
government "to explore all possible options to bring the conflict to
an end without further bloodshed" and asked the separatist Tamil
Tiger rebels to agree to a halt in the fighting.
"The
secretary-general is appalled at the killing of hundreds of
civilians in Sri Lanka over the weekend," his office said in a
statement.
"Thousands of
Sri Lankans have already died in the past several months due to the
conflict, and more still remain in grave danger."
Artillery
strikes on the small stretch of coastline still held by the Tamil
Tiger guerrillas in the northeast of the island nation have caused
major casualties among the tens of thousands of non-combatants, both
sides reported.
The rebels said
the civilians had died as the military pressed ahead with its
offensive, but the defence ministry accused the Tigers of firing
mortars to create a humanitarian crisis and attract foreign
intervention.
"They are
bombarding their own civilians with heavy weapons to lay the blame
on the Sri Lankan forces," the ministry said in a statement.
The Tigers
denied the charge through their former chief arms smuggler,
Selvarasa Pathmanathan, who urged the international community to
intervene and prevent further loss of life.
13
May 2009
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