COLOMBO, May 15 (RIA Novosti) - Sri Lanka's defense minister has criticized calls from the UN and Western powers to halt an offensive against Tamil Tiger separatists, saying the military needs to permanently wipe out insurgent forces.
On Wednesday, the UN Security Council and the United States urged both sides in the conflict to end violence and avoid a humanitarian catastrophe, as thousands of civilians attempted to flee the war zone.
"The problem is with the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), which is preventing civilians from leaving", Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told RIA Novosti in an interview. He also said that the insurgents were firing at civilians attempting to flee the area.
Sri Lankan military drones have filmed thousands of people attempting to cross a lagoon from a small coastal strip in the country's northeast where the government says separatists are holding civilians by force.
"Those who are concerned about the civilian population must take all efforts to put pressure on the LTTE, not on us. What is the point in pressuring us?" the minister said.
"We have been waging this war for 30 years, and the worst is behind us. Now, when we are destroying them, we do not want to leave the smallest chance for them to come back."
"The people and the government feel rage when outsiders, particularly certain countries, which either do not understand what is going on or are motivated by something else, try to stop our counter-terrorist operation, and try to give militants a second chance. They do this, hiding behind a 'humanitarian catastrophe'."
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has sent his chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, to Sri Lanka to try to negotiate a peaceful agreement. Nambiar will arrive on Saturday.
The Red Cross has warned of an "unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe" developing in the region, while the UN has said up to 50,000 civilians are trapped in the war zone. The Sri Lankan army says four civilians have been killed and 14 injured by insurgent gunfire.
Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday that high-resolution satellite imagery had shown crater marks in the government-designated protected zone for civilians, suggesting that troops had been using artillery fire on rebels. The government denies the allegation, saying the damage was caused by rebel forces.
