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Sri Lanka

President calls on Tigers to surrender after military advance

Article published on the 2008-11-15 Latest update 2008-11-15 14:33 TU

Police at the scene of the shooting of Kumaraswami Nandagoban(Photo: Reuters)

Police at the scene of the shooting of Kumaraswami Nandagoban
(Photo: Reuters)

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse on Saturday called on Tamil Tiger rebels to surrender in a televised address which followed the military's announcement that it had captured a rebel stronghold. The army says that there is intense fighting around Kilinochchi, the political capital of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

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"The entire A-32 road and Pooneryn was captured by our security forces," the president said. "On this occasion, I ask [Tiger chief Velupillai] Prabhakaran to lay down arms and immediately come for talks. The best thing he can do for the people in the north is to lay down arms and surrender."

Pooneryn had been under LTTE control since 1993, when the rebels seized a military base there, killing about 700 soldiers. They had used the coastal area to launch artillery strikes against a military airbase, while the A-32 is the main north-western coastal road.

Defence officials say that the Tigers seem to have moved their guns inland.

The Defence Ministry says that troops are closing in on Kilinochchi and that "pitched battles" are going on in the area, although it has been made similar claims several times since September.

The air force deployed helicopter gunships to pound rebel positions on the northern Jaffna peninsula on Saturday.

There has been no immediate comment from the LTTE.

Human rights campaigner Sunela Abeysekara warns against trusting either side's claims, citing exaggerated claims of opponents' losses in combat.

"If you were to take both sides seriously, it’s hard to imagine how many thousands and thousands of people have been killed as a result of this war," she told RFI.

On Friday Kumaraswami Nandagoban, alias Ragu, the personal secretary of Eastern Province Chief Minister and former Tamil rebel Pillayan, and another person were shot dead while travelling in a car a suburb of Colombo.