UPDATE 07:45 The BBC reports the Sri Lankan government as saying bodies of Tamil Tiger leaders have been found as “brushing up” operations continue. The country’s Tamil Tigers have accepted defeat after 25 years of fighting, with their head of international relations saying on their web site Sunday 16 May that the “bitter end” had been reached. Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse told a group of G11 developing countries leaders meeting in Jordan Sunday that he is “proud” to have declared victory over the Tamil Tigers Friday 16 May, after cutting off rebel access to the sea. About 50,000 civilians fled the fighting in recent days, 36,000 on Saturday alone, reports the BBC, quoting army sources. The government had announced previously that no more than 20,000 civilians remained in the area, although 16 May the pro-Tamil tamilnet.com reported that fighting, including heavy artillery, continues in the area and that thousands of wounded civilians remain trapped. Al Jazeera, Christian Science Monitor

Posted by Sean Ecker on 18 May 2009 at 7:43 | permalink
        Post Comment  
 

News story, GenevaLunch, 18 May 2009.

Filed under: World news

Tags: , , , ,

We are happy to have your comments, which are approved before they appear: please remember to be courteous and brief. We accept only comments directly related to an article. We do not accept comment spam - messages sent to more than one site. We do not publish comments if the e-mail address is not legitimate. Thank you!

Comments

Older comments

  1. GenevaLunch » Blog Archive » New Sri Lanka appeal by ICRC for urgent access to wounded Says:

    [...] “Sri Lanka government claims victory, Tamil Tigers say “bitter end” reached,&#8221… 18 May 2009, GenevaLunch [...]

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.