The United Nations said on Thursday Tamil Tiger rebels had violated international law for refusing to allow local staff and their families to leave Sri Lanka's war zone. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are now cornered in less than 400 sq km (155 sq mile) in northern Sri Lanka along with what aid agencies say are about 230,000 people trapped between the separatists and a Sri Lankan military onslaught.
Both the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations have raised fears for the safety of civilians with troops converging on the LTTE's last big outpost with the aim of finishing the 25-year-old war once and for all. They have urged the Tigers to let people leave and the military to avoid all civilian casualties.
On Thursday, the United Nations in Sri Lanka in a statement said it had "issued its strongest possible protest to the LTTE for their refusal to allow UN national staff and dependents" to leave the war zone in a convoy. "The LTTE's denial of safe passage is a clear abrogation of their obligations under international humanitarian law," the statement said, adding that the convoy had been stuck in the war zone since January 16. The LTTE could not be reached for comment.