Sri Lanka: No cease-fire, rebels must surrender

[Coventina]

Source: Associated Press

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's prime minister on Thursday rejected calls for a cease-fire from donor countries concerned by reports of growing civilian casualties in the South Asian nation's civil war and instead demanded the Tamil Tiger rebels' unconditional surrender.

Sri Lankan forces captured the insurgents' biggest sea base Thursday — cutting off their main supply point in the latest in a string of military victories that has squeezed the Tamil Tigers into a 30-square-mile (85-square-kilometer) sliver of coastal land.

Even before the base was taken, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake told Parliament that the "last moment" of the rebels' 25-year-old fight for a separate Tamil homeland was near.

More than 70,000 people have died in the conflict, and hundreds of civilians are reported to have been killed in the most recent round of fighting.



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