UN Urges Tamil Tigers to End Fighting in Sri Lanka

The UN security council last night called on the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka to lay down their arms and urged the island's government to abide by international humanitarian law on the protection of civilians in armed conflicts.

It called for UN and international humanitarian agencies to be granted access to the thousands of people affected by the fighting.

UN officials today estimated that up to 60,000 people remained inside the no-fire zone. More than 100,000 people are now thought to have managed to escape the fighting after the Sri Lankan military breached a major Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) defensive position on Monday morning.

The informal council meeting took place on Wednesday night in a basement conference room at the UN's New York headquarters.

Although the escalating crisis in Sri Lanka was not on the council agenda, it has been under pressure to make some intervention as the scale of the disaster for the civilians fleeing the tiny northern war zone has become more apparent. The Red Cross says hundreds of people have been killed in the government offensive since Monday and about 1,000 badly wounded people are in desperate need for treatment.

In a non-binding statement, the council demanded that LTTE fighters stop using civilians as human shields, lay down their arms, renounce terrorism and join political talks to end the nation's 25-year civil war.

Afterwards, the Mexican president of the security council, ambassador Claude Heller, said: "We strongly condemn a terrorist organisation for the use of civilians as human shields and for not allowing them to leave the area of conflict."

Criticism of the government was echoed by the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. "I think that the Sri Lankan government knows that the entire world is very disappointed that, in its efforts to end what it sees as 25 years of conflict, it is causing such untold suffering," she said.

Yesterday afternoon, the Sri Lankan military said it had pushed through to the beach, splitting the no-fire zone into two sectors. It described a 1km-long queue of civilians waiting to get out of the no-fire zone.

The military said two LTTE officials had surrendered – the former media spokesman Velayutham Dayanithi, alias Daya Master, and an interpreter for the group's political wing.

The reports are impossible to verify because independent media are barred from entering the area.

The ministry of defence website said troops had attacked the Tigers' naval base at Puttumatalan and captured the hospital in the town. It gave no details of the operation to capture the hospital, where hundreds of casualties have been treated in recent days.

A doctor at the hospital told the Guardian that cluster bombs and artillery shelling had killed or injured hundreds of civilians around the hospital.

Hospital staff have been heavily criticized by the Sri Lankan government for giving out details of civilian casualties, and the country's health minister last week warned that two regional health directors would face disciplinary action over claims that the army had shelled the no-fire zone.

Sarah Crowe, the Unicef spokeswoman for south Asia, said those trapped inside the no-fire zone were going through "an unimaginable hell".

The Sri Lankan military rejected the Red Cross casualty figures. Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, the army spokesman, said it was "not possible" that the figures could be so high.

"It is not true that the figures are that big. There may have been a couple of civilians killed because of the action of the LTTE," he said.

"This is a rescue operation and we are not returning fire when they are firing their arms from among the civilians. We are only using small arms, not artillery or even machine guns."

He claimed the Red Cross was getting its figures from the LTTE. "There can't be that amount of big numbers being killed. If that is the case they are either LTTE, it is exaggerated, or it is as a result of action by the LTTE," he said.

But he said the 100,000 people "rescued" by the army since Monday included 300 who had been injured.