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23 more LTTE cadres surrender to security forces

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, Apr 26, IRNA -- Even as the talks with UN Chief John Holmes is in progress in Colombo, there are confirmed reports of 23 more LTTE cadres surrendering to the Security forces at Valliagamadam .

According to All India Radio (AIR) report, confirming this Brigadier Udaya Nanyakkara said that the troops are advancing further south in the No Fire Zone and have reached Valliagamadam .

Just a few days back two senior leaders of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had Daya Master and George had surrendered. Later, they had indicated that more LTTE cadres re willing to surrender.

The myth of LTTE cadres of either fighting or swallowing a cyanide capsule before capture or surrender is slowly breaking down.

Meanwhile, the LTTE on Sunday announced a unilateral ceasefire in Sri Lanka, a pro-rebel website reported.

"In the face of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis and in response to the calls made by the UN, EU, the governments of the US, India and others, the LTTE has announced a unilateral ceasefire," TamilNet reported.

"All of LTTE's offensive military operations will cease with immediate effect," said the press statement.

The Sri Lankan government, however, rejected the rebels’ call and said that the Tigers must surrender.

"That is a joke. They were not fighting with us, they were running from us. There is no need of a ceasefire. They must surrender. That is it," Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa said in a telephone interview to a news agency.

The top UN humanitarian official John Holmes arrived in Sri Lanka on Saturday amid mounting pressure on the LTTE to surrender, and the government to halt its offensive to wipe out a foe it has fought since 1983.

Tens of thousands of civilians remain trapped in a tiny strip of coastline studded with coconut groves, a former Army-declared no-fire zone that has become the final conventional battleground in Asia's longest-running war.

International concern is mounting about the welfare of those held by the LTTE in fighting, and more than 100,000 who fled en masse after troops blasted an earthen barricade on Monday.

Internal United Nations tallies say nearly 6,500 have been killed in fighting since the end of January.

2160**1412

End News / IRNA / News Code 455138