LTTE ignores humanitarian pause

Chamikara WEERSASINGHE

LTTE terrorists have failed to respond to the 48-hour-humanitarian pause declared by President Mahinda Rajapaksa on April 12, in view of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. LTTE cadres have fired from heavy machine guns and small arms on the security forces continuously, killing one soldier of the 58 Division from a sniper attack from the No Fire Zone (NFZ), he said.

The soldier was on duty at a distant defensive position in Puthukudiyruppu.

Meanwhile, terrorists have attacked security front lines by directing artillery gunfire on the troops, he said.

The shelling by the LTTE injured two soldiers of the 53 Division, he said.

“They have launched these attacks while the troops were observing the 48-hour humanitarian pause ordered by President Mahinda Rajapaksa beginning April 13, Brigadier Nanayakkara said. Meanwhile, The Hindu of April 14 states in its editorial that facing annihilation, they [the LTTE] have had no moral compunction in moving into the NFZ with heavy weapons, and using the hard-pressed civilians as a last ditch shield.

Refusing to acknowledge the very idea of a humanitarian NFZ, they have made it clear that the lives and welfare of Tamils, whose sole representative the LTTE claims to be, just do not count in this horrible travesty of a liberation struggle.”

The Hindu states: “There can be no other explanation for this refusal to heed international humanitarian appeals.

The 65,000 Tamils who have escaped to Government controlled areas since November 2008 give the lie to the LTTE’s claim that the Tami