Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa said today his government had no intention of a cease-fire with Tamil Tiger rebels, telling international critics the military's actions constituted a "humanitarian operation."
Sri Lanka has been under fresh pressure this week, from the European Union among others, to allow a cease-fire so civilians trapped in the tiny area the Tigers still hold can escape.
US officials meanwhile said Washington wanted an IMF loan to Sri Lanka delayed to encourage Colombo to do more to help the civilians caught in the last redoubt of the Tigers, who have fought a 25-year war for a separate ethnic Tamil homeland.
"We have at no time gone for a cease-fire. We will not do so now. There is no time for that now," Mr Rajapaksa said in a speech published on government websites.
"In the five or six days remaining we have given the opportunity for the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) to lay down their arms and surrender," he said, urging them to also let civilians leave.
In addition to a cease-fire, foreign countries have asked for more access for aid workers and others to the battle zone, but Mr Rajapaksa said what was happening there should be obvious.
"With satellite technology the whole world can now see how the LTTE uses tanks to fire at the Tamil people fleeing from them. Of what need special observers to know of this?"
While Colombo fears a cease-fire could allow the Tigers to regroup and re-arm, it says it is taking care not to target civilians in the LTTE-held area of coastline the military puts at about seven square kilometres.
The United Nations estimates up to 50,000 civilians are trapped there. The government puts the figure lower, and said this week it would not use heavy weapons against the Tigers, but concentrate on trying to free civilians using small arms.
Describing troops carrying little children and the elderly to safety, and parents who "go on their knees to respect our troops for saving them from terror," Ms Rajapaksa said: "That is why we call this a humanitarian operation."
The Tigers say despite such statements from the government side, they are still subject to shelling and air strikes taking the lives of hundreds of civilians. A senior UN official also expressed concern over reports of shelling this week.
The military meanwhile continues to report inflicting significant casualties on the Tigers.
While both sides say they avoid targeting civilians, an internal UN tally of casualties says nearly 6,500 people have been killed in fighting since late January. Those and other claims related to the battle zone are difficult to confirm given a lack of access for media and of independent observers on the ground.
Reuters