UNSG welcomes President's announcement of safe passage for civilians

(January 31, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is pleased to note the Statement made by the UN Secretary General on 30 January 2009, which welcomes President Mahinda Rajapakse’s announcement of safe passage to a secure environment for civilians who are kept as a human shield by the LTTE in the North.


The UNSG has issued a strong message to the LTTE to allow the civilians in the conflict zone to move to areas cleared by the Government, keeping in mind the need to ensure the security and welfare of the innocent civilians. Such calls by the international community are timely, and will hopefully persuade the LTTE to respond to the humanitarian objective of releasing the majority Tamil civilians trapped in the uncleared areas.

The Government has taken several measures to ensure the safety and security of the civilians in the recent operations aimed at clearing the remaining few areas of the Mullaitivu district of LTTE activity. In view of the fact that the LTTE is holding the civilians by force as human shields, and not allowing them to enter into the cleared areas, the Government had demarcated a “safe area”, and informed civilians to move into the safe area. However, the LTTE had violated the objective of the safe area by moving mortar and heavy weapons into, this area and firing from within the safe area over civilians, thus causing civilian casualties, and endangering their security.

It is against this background that the President of Sri Lanka has announced the safe passage for all civilians.

The government wishes to reiterate its position that the military activities are aimed solely at eradicating terrorism. The Government of Sri Lanka has adhered to , and will continue to adhere to a “zero civilian casualty” policy in its effort to eradicate terrorism. - Sri Lanka Guardian