Sri Lanka`s long war in bloody final climax
Sun May 17, 2009 1:18am EDT
By C. Bryson Hull and Ranga Sirilal

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Tamil Tiger rebels launched suicide attacks against Sri Lankan troops fighting on Sunday to deliver a death blow to the separatists after the president declared victory in Asia`s longest modern war, the military said.

The LTTE, founded on a culture of suicide before surrender, showed no sign of giving up in the face of an overwhelming military onslaught that has given no quarter in a relentless offensive nearing its third year.

Troops killed at least 70 Tiger fighters masquerading as civilians who tried to cross the Nanthikadal lagoon, on the western side of the battle zone, in six boats.

Blasts rocked the remaining rebel-held area, now measuring barely a square kilometer (0.5 sq mile), the military said.

`Suicide explosions are taking place. Suicide cadres are coming in front of troops in the frontline and exploding themselves,` Nanayakkara said.

Government forces on Saturday took control of the entire island`s coast for the first time since the war broke out in 1983, cutting off any chance of escape for a militant group whose conventional defeat has been a foregone conclusion for months.

Rumors swirled about the fate of Tiger founder-leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran and other senior leaders after a massive explosion was heard inside a bunker. Prabhakaran has in the past vowed not to be taken alive.

Nearly 37,000 people fled to army-held areas on Saturday, bringing the total since Thursday to more than 50,000. Before the exodus started, the United Nations had estimated there were 50,000-100,000 there.

`NO PAUSE`

Pro-rebel web site www.TamilNet.com reported that thousands of wounded people had been left to die after heavy weapons barrages, but it gave no sources.

`There has been no pause from continued cannon and heavy mortar fire,` TamilNet said.

Getting an independent picture of events inside the war zone is normally a difficult task, given both sides have repeatedly distorted accounts to suit their side of the story and outside observers are generally barred from it.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa returned to the country early on Sunday, the day after he said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had been defeated militarily in the 25-year civil war, even as combat still raged in the island`s northeast.

The military said it had rescued all the civilians being held by the LTTE as human shields, removing the last barrier to unleashing overwhelming firepower on the well-armed LTTE.

`All civilians from Vellimullivaikal have been rescued. The troops are still fighting the LTTE. Over 50,000 have been rescued since Thursday,` military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon`s chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, was due in Colombo to make a last-ditch attempt for a negotiated end to the war.

The Tigers this week again refused to surrender or to free civilians, while the government rejected calls to pause its assault to protect civilians.

Each side accuses the other of killing civilians, and diplomats say there is evidence both have done so. The U.N. rights chief on Friday said she backed an inquiry into potential war crimes and humanitarian violations by both sides.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for an immediate end to fighting and said Sri Lanka `must understand that there will be consequences for its actions.`

Nambiar`s visit, U.N. and Western condemnation and U.S. threats to withhold a $1.9 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan all appear to have come too late to stop a fight to the finish between uncompromising foes.

The Red Cross called the civilians` plight an `unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe` because of the lack of food, water and medical care in the battle zone, where the United Nations estimates 30,000-80,000 people are trapped.

`We have not eaten for weeks,` a Tamil woman who escaped told Derana TV.

`Tell your leader to rescue all our children, all the Tamils. There are children without legs, some are dead on the streets. After seeing so many, I have lost interest in life.`

ECONOMIC CHALLENGES

Many analysts expect the LTTE to return to its hit-and-run guerrilla roots with financing from the global Tamil diaspora, but the military says it is ready to face that threat.

The LTTE has vowed to attack economic targets.

That could complicate Rajapaksa`s plans to revive Sri Lanka`s $40 billion economy, reeling from falling revenues from garment and tea exports, a balance-of-payments deficit, a declining rupee, and depleted foreign exchange reserves.

Despite the U.S. threats, the IMF on Friday indicated it expected the loan to be worked out in a few weeks.

Prabhakaran began his fight for a separate state for Sri Lanka`s minority Tamils in the early 1970s, and it erupted into full-scale civil war in 1983.

Tamils complain of marginalization at the hands of successive governments led by the Sinhalese majority, which came to power at independence in 1948 and took the favored position the Tamils had enjoyed under the British colonial government.