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Sri Lankan troops declare new civilian safe zone
COLOMBO - Sri Lankan troops declared a new safe zone for civilians Thursday as they battled to finish off the island's drawn-out ethnic conflict with separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, the defence ministry said. Concern has mounted for tens of thousands of non-combatants trapped in the war zone, with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) saying hundreds have already been killed.

Britain named former defence minister Des Browne as a special envoy to the war-scarred island nation, amid mounting international concern about the fate of civilians, but Colombo quickly rejected the move, a top official said. London said Browne was to focus on the "immediate humanitarian situation in northern Sri Lanka", but the cabinet of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse said the envoy would not be accepted here, the official told AFP.

The government has asked men, women and children to move to a 12-kilometre (7.5-mile) stretch of coastline as troops advanced on rebel positions in the north in a bid to crush all remaining pockets of Tiger resistance.
You'll find the last of the Tigers in the 'safe' zone. Along with their artillery ...
In creating the new safe zone, the government effectively scrapped a 35-square-kilometre (13-square-mile) designated no-fire area. "The Sri Lanka army, fully committed to provide maximum safety for the lives of entrapped or forcibly detained civilians... calls upon the public to move into those specified areas at the earliest," the defence ministry said.

Military officials said there was heavy fighting in the area where some 700 Tiger rebels were believed to be offering stiff resistance. No details of casualties from Thursday's clashes were released by either side.

Security forces seized nine mortar tubes from a fortified camp at Kuppilankulam on Wednesday, the ministry said in a statement, adding 28 Tamil Tiger guerrillas had been killed in fighting in the area. Also seized were a workshop for making hand grenades and roadside bombs, and several vehicles including an armour-plated van used by Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, the ministry said.

The defence ministry said the ICRC had been informed of the creation of the new safe zone, where the international relief agency already operates a make-shift medical facility.
Posted by: Steve White 2009-02-13
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=262435