U.K. Will Ask for Report in Security Council on Sri Lankan War....!!!

Updated: New York, Apr 20 14:59London, Apr 20 19:59 Tokyo, Apr 21 03:59
Bloomberg Press

U.K. Will Ask for Report in Security Council on Sri Lankan War

By Jay Shankar

April 19 (Bloomberg) -- Britain will ask United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s envoy to Sri Lanka to report to the body’s Security Council “immediately” after his visit to the war-torn nation, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.

Britain renewed calls for a cease-fire in the conflict between the Tamil Tiger rebels and Sri Lanka’s military and Miliband said he was “gravely concerned” about the war that threatened thousands of civilian lives, according to a statement posted on the Web site of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office late yesterday. U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s special representative, Des Browne is traveling to New York to consult “urgently” with the UN, the Foreign Office said.

Ban sent Vijay Nambiar, his chief of staff, to Sri Lanka on April 16 as new fighting broke out after a two-day halt in operations announced by the government, ended on April 14.

Sri Lanka’s army says it has driven the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam into a government-declared safe zone on the northeastern coast after capturing the group’s northern bases in an offensive that began in January.

The LTTE is fighting for a separate Tamil homeland in the north and east of the island nation and the 26-year-old conflict has claimed lives of more than 70,000 people.

“The UN is making progress with the government of Sri Lanka toward an agreement to get support to civilians in the conflict zone and on efforts to get an agreement from the LTTE to allow civilians to leave,” according to the British government’s statement.

The LTTE says the civilians, mostly Tamils, have chosen to stay in rebel-held territory because they are afraid of being abused by the Sri Lankan army. The rebels say security forces are shelling the no-fire zone.

Verifying accounts from the battlefield is difficult as outside observers are restricted from the area.

Rejects Cease-Fire

Sri Lanka has rejected a cease-fire call from the UN, Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said, according to a statement on the government’s Web site. Rajapaksa told Nambiar that the government cannot extend the cease-fire because there was “no result” during the previous halt in fighting.

The Tamil Tigers didn’t meet international demands to release civilians during the two-day pause, Rajapaksa said. Nambiar met with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama.

The U.S. on April 16 called on the government and the LTTE to immediately end the fighting, saying as many as 140,000 people are being put at risk.

The government has an opportunity to end the civil war that has raged since 1983 by engaging “Tamils who do not espouse violence or terrorism and to develop power-sharing arrangements,” State Department spokesman Robert Wood said.

B. Nadesan, head of the LTTE’s political wing, called for a cease-fire last month to allow aid to reach civilians. Rajapaksa, on March 31, rejected a truce, saying the army will continue its operations “until the war is completely over.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Jay Shankar in Bangalore at jshankar1@bloomberg.net