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The Sri
Lanka Army this morning denied accusations that it was using civilians as
human shields in the northern battle zones, saying that LTTE infiltration
of refugee groups has hampered army efforts to move civilians to Jaffna. Army
spokesman Brigadier Palitha Fernando said that the large number of
refugees seeking to move to army controlled areas was evidence of the
confidence civilians had in the ability of the army to provide protection. “If
they didn’t have confidence in us, they would have moved south to Tiger
areas, but they haven’t done that,” Brigadier Fernando said. Brigadier
Fernando blamed delays in allowing civilians to pass through to Jaffna on
the combination of civilian identity checks and LTTE attempts to prevent
civilians moving away from the combat zones. The LTTE
has also accused the ICRC and the UNHCR of failing to secure the safety of
civilian refugees. However, the ICRC said it had made clear to both the
LTTE and government forces that they must ensure civilians are not
targeted and that all measures are taken to protect non-combatants. The ICRC,
which has aid workers in Jaffna, pointed out that they had problems
obtaining security guarantees for the safety of their staff to visit some
of the areas affected by the ongoing fighting. "We
need security guarantees to go to those areas," ICRC spokesman Harsha
Gunawardane said. "It is increasingly becoming difficult to get such
guarantees from both sides". The
Tigers also accused the government forces of blocking civilians running
away for shelter. But military sources denied these allegations and
explained that they had to provide shelter in other areas since they were
not in a position to keep the civilians due to heavy tiger artillery fire
on their locations. The LTTE
had been continuing their attacks irrespective of the Tamil civilians
trapped in between. According to SLA, they had been careful in counter
bombardments fearing of causing civilian casualties. In order to prevent
this, the airforce was used to attack exact Tiger positions from air. The
Navy was also involved in concentrating on the coastal lines that Tigers
use frequently for re-inforcements. In areas
where aid workers had gained access, there had been about 1,800 people
receiving ICRC assistance after fleeing their homes in the battle area. Another
39 people who were injured during crossfire were admitted to two hospitals
in the peninsula.
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