A senior UN official has urged Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels to lay down their arms and let the UN help trapped civilians to leave the conflict zone, writes BBC online Thursday.
Claude Heller, Mexico’s ambassador at the UN in New York, spoke to reporters after chairing an informal meeting of the UN Security Council on the issue.
While the 15-strong Council passed no resolution on the conflict, Mr Heller said he was voicing members’ concerns.
Sri Lanka’s army says it has closed in on the last area of Tiger resistance.
It says that more than 100.000 civilians have escaped from the rebel-held area in the north-east but many remain trapped.
Sri Lanka’s President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has ruled out a pardon for Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran if he is captured alive by advancing government soldiers.
On Wednesday, Sri Lanka’s government said the rebels’ media co-ordinator, Daya Master, had given himself up, along with an interpreter involved in talks with the press and foreign diplomats, adds BBC.
