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Thursday, April 23, 2009 - 4.00 GMT |
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Lay down arms, renounce terror – UN to LTTE |
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“The LTTE is a terrorist organization and
should be condemned for its use of civilian
as a human shield. The LTTE should
immediately lay down arms and renounce its
terror tactics”, said Ambassador Claude
Heller, the President of the UN Security
Council summing up the views expressed by
the Members of the Security Council at an
informal briefing today (22/4).
The informal briefing to the Council was a
follow-up to the visit of UN Under-Secretary
General Vijey Nambiar to Sri Lanka earlier
this week. The Security Council unanimously
agreed that the LTTE’s holding civilians
hostage was unacceptable and welcomed the
movement of large numbers of civilians out
of harms way. They called on the
international community to extend all
assistance to the Sri Lankan Government to
deal with the influx of civilians who are
fleeing from the LTTE’s hold.
Significantly, the Security Council did not
call for a ceasefire or a humanitarian pause
believing that this would only provide a
breathing space for the LTTE and prolong the
civilian suffering. They concluded that the
quickest way to end this conflict was for
LTTE to lay down arms, surrender and let the
political process proceed as there was no
military solution.
At this informal interactive session held
yesterday, the members also urged the
government to be cautious about the
civilians when taking military action to
secure a safe passage for civilians. They
also called on the Government to work
closely with the UN in providing
humanitarian assistance to the displaced
civilians including those in transit.
Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to UN,
Ambassador Palihakkara gave assurances to
the Council Members that the military was
not planning any final assault that could
endanger the lives of civilians. He also
recalled the assurances given by the
Government that it was not firing heavy
weapons into the safe zone declared by the
government and stated that if these
allegations were true the civilians would
not have left in such large numbers seeking
safety from the Government. He gave a
detailed account of the steps taken by the
Government to address the humanitarian
situation in close collaboration with the UN
and other humanitarian agencies on the
Ground.
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