New Zealand calls for halt to Sri Lanka fighting to save trapped civilians

May 2nd, 2009 Sri Lanka: Latest fighting kills 14 rebelsCOLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan soldiers killed 14 Tamil Tiger rebels in the latest gunbattles in the insurgents' ever-shrinking northern territory, amid growing international pressure to safeguard 50,000 civilians trapped in the war zone. The military has ousted the rebels from all their strongholds in recent months and cornered them in a 3-mile-long (5-kilometer-long) strip along the northeastern coast.

April 30th, 2009 Sri Lanka president rejects truce appealsCOLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has rejected a cease-fire appeal from French and British officials and said Western diplomats should stop lecturing him. Rajapaksa said Thursday that the government would not accept a truce with "terrorists." The British and French foreign ministers came to Sri Lanka on Wednesday to try to broker a truce in the nation's bloody civil war to safeguard tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the war zone.

April 29th, 2009 Ex-rebel: Sri Lanka guerrillas killing civiliansCOLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Tamil Tiger rebels massacred hundreds of civilians — including 200 people from one village — as they tried to flee the war zone in northern Sri Lanka, a former rebel official said in an interview broadcast Wednesday. The rebels' former spokesman Velayutham Dayanithi, known by his nom de guerre Daya Master, told Sri Lankan state television that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam fighters have grown desperate in recent months as the military have driven them from their northern strongholds.

April 26th, 2009 UN humanitarian chief seeks Sri Lanka cease-fireCOLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The United Nations' top humanitarian official begins a three-day mission in Sri Lanka on Sunday, seeking access to some 50,000 civilians trapped and reportedly starving in the country's sealed-off war zone. U.N. Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes said he hopes to persuade the Sri Lankan government to suspend its assault and allow a humanitarian team into the conflict zone, where the civilians are caught between government forces and the beleaguered Tamil Tiger rebels.

April 25th, 2009 Rebels warn of starvation in Sri LankaCOLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The Tamil Tiger rebels say that tens of thousands of civilians trapped in Sri Lanka's northern war zone are at imminent risk of starvation. The rebels said in a statement Saturday that food stocks in the northeastern war zone had dwindled and urged the international community to push the government to allow food shipments to enter.

April 25th, 2009 UN to press Sri Lanka for access to war zoneCOLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The United Nations' top humanitarian official arrived in Sri Lanka to seek access to some 50,000 civilians trapped in the country's war zone, while the Tamil Tiger rebels warned Saturday of "imminent" starvation among noncombatants. Reports of chaos and suffering in the northern war zone have increased in recent days as the Sri Lankan military pushed forward with its offensive to destroy the separatist insurgency and end the Indian Ocean island nation's bloody quarter-century civil war.

April 25th, 2009 UN humanitarian chief: Sri Lanka situation 'dire'BANGKOK — The U.N.'s top humanitarian official said Saturday that the situation for some 50,000 civilians trapped in Sri Lanka's war zone is now "very dire," and a pause in the fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels is desperately needed to get them out of danger. Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes, who was en route to the troubled island nation for a three-day emergency mission, said in Bangkok that he hopes to persuade the government to allow a humanitarian team into the conflict zone to assess the situation and the needs of trapped civilians.

April 24th, 2009 Sri Lankan president meets with Indian envoysCOLOMBO, Sri Lanka — President Mahinda Rajapaksa has met with two top Indian officials to discuss the bloody fighting in Sri Lanka's recent offensive against ethnic Tamil rebels. A government official says Rajapaksa met with India's National Security Adviser M.

April 22nd, 2009 Sri Lanka army: 35 rebels killed as civilians fleeCOLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan soldiers have pushed deep into the sole remaining Tamil rebel enclave and killed 35 guerrillas while nearly 78,000 civilians have fled the northern war zone in the past two days, the military said Wednesday. Troops in recent months have ousted the rebels from all their former strongholds and hemmed them into what the government previously deemed a "no fire" zone to protect civilians.

April 21st, 2009 Sri Lanka: Thousands more flee fightingCOLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Thousands more civilians fled Sri Lanka's northern war zone Tuesday, bringing the exodus of the past two days to nearly 50,000 as a government deadline passed for separatist Tamil rebels to surrender. The 24-hour ultimatum expired at noon (0630 GMT) Tuesday without a response from the rebels, who are cornered in a sliver of coastal territory amid signs they are facing total defeat after a 25-year fight for an independent, ethnic Tamil homeland.

April 21st, 2009 Sri Lanka: 50,000 civilians have fled war zoneCOLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Thousands more civilians streamed out of the war zone Tuesday, the military said, bringing the exodus of the past two days to nearly 50,000 as a government deadline passed for separatist Tamil rebels to surrender. The ultimatum expired at noon (0630 GMT) Tuesday without a response from the rebels, who are cornered in a sliver of coastal territory amid signs they are facing total defeat after a 25-year fight for an independent, ethnic Tamil homeland.

April 20th, 2009 Sri Lanka military reports saving 5,000 civiliansCOLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan troops rescued 5,000 civilians from the small sliver of territory in the war-ravaged north on Monday, the military said. The government has designated the area a "no-fire" zone to protect what the United Nations estimates are 100,000 civilians trapped there.

April 19th, 2009 Sri Lanka: More than 2,800 flee war zoneCOLOMBO, Sri Lanka — More than 2,800 civilians have fled Sri Lanka's northern war zone where they were cornered with the remaining Tamil Tiger insurgents, the military said Sunday. Military spokesman Brig.

April 19th, 2009 Sri Lanka: 17 rebels dead in clashes to clear roadCOLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan soldiers killed 17 Tamil Tiger separatists in fighting to clear a road that would give the military access to remaining rebel territory where thousands of civilians are trapped, the Defense Ministry said. The rebels, who once controlled a de facto state in parts of the country's north and east, have retreated to a tiny slice of land that the government had earlier declared a "no-fire zone" for civilians fleeing the fighting in the island's nation's civil war.

April 18th, 2009 Sri Lanka health official says 28 civilians killedCOLOMBO, Sri Lanka — At least 28 civilians have been killed in two days of fighting as Sri Lankan troops try to push into a small "no-fire zone" where Tamil Tiger rebels have bunkered down for their final stand, a health official said. The rebels lost to government forces the de facto state they controlled for years in parts of the country's north and east and have retreated into a tiny slice of land that the government earlier declared a haven for civilians fleeing the fighting in this island's nation's 25-year civil war.