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Journalism of Courage
Rubbishing the Sri Lankan Governments claim that it was holding civilians in Wanni as human shields,the LTTE on Friday said it has not imposed restrictions on anyone to leave the war zone in northern areas as Colombo set a 48-hour deadline for the rebels to surrender.
We have been very clear that any individual who wishes to leave the combat zone has an individual right to move anywhere, Tamil Tigers political head B Nadesan said.
We have not imposed any restriction on individuals. But,we will not be organising any organised exodus against the collective will of the people who have sought refuge away from a genocidal military, he was quoted as saying by the pro-LTTE website TamilNet.com.
Nadesan claimed that several civilians have died without medical transport and the LTTE has been urging the ICRC,the UN and all the actors of the international community to act urgently to provide transport to the wounded.
The Sri Lankan Government on Friday disputed the claim of international aid agencies that 2.5 lakh Tamil civilians were caught in the fighting between the security forces and LTTE in the islands north,saying the figure was the result of many duplications while the actual number could be nearly half of what was being projected.
We have estimated the number of civilians in the region. But there are many duplications and it is not 2.5 lakh people in Wanni, Minister for Disaster Management and Human Rights,Mahinda Samarasinghe,told reporters.
