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Viewing cable 09COLOMBO265, Northern Sri Lanka SitRep 28

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
09COLOMBO265 2009-03-09 11:28 2011-08-25 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Colombo
O 091128Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY COLOMBO
TO SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9539
INFO AMEMBASSY ATHENS 
AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 
AMEMBASSY DHAKA 
AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 
AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU 
AMEMBASSY LONDON 
AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 
AMEMBASSY OSLO 
AMEMBASSY TOKYO 
AMCONSUL CHENNAI 
AMCONSUL MUMBAI 
AMCONSUL TORONTO 
USEU BRUSSELS
USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 
USMISSION GENEVA 
HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI
DIA WASHINGTON DC
NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
SECDEF WASHDC
CDRUSARPAC FT SHAFTER HI//APCW/APOP//
CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI//J3/J332/J52//
UNCLAS COLOMBO 000265 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR SCA (BOUCHER, CAMP), SCA/INS AND PRM 
STATE ALSO PASS USAID 
AID/W FOR ANE/SCA, DCHA/FFP (DWORKEN, KSHEIN) 
AID/W FOR DCHA/OFDA (MORRISP, ACONVERY, RTHAYER, RKERR) 
ATHENS FOR PCARTER 
BANGKOK FOR USAID/DCHA/OFDA (WBERGER) 
KATHMANDU FOR USAID/DCHA/OFDA AND POL (SBERRY) 
GENEVA FOR RMA (NKYLOH, NHILGERT, MPITOTTI) 
USUN NEW YORK FOR ECOSOC (D MERCADO) 
SECDEF FOR OSD - POLICY 
PACOM ALSO FOR J-5 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: MOPS PREF PHUM PGOV PREL ASEC CE
SUBJECT: Northern Sri Lanka SitRep 28 
 
Ref:  A) Colombo 258  B) Colombo 250  C) Colombo 248  D) Colombo 247 
 E) Colombo 245  F) Colombo 240  G) Colombo 235  H) Colombo 230  I) 
Colombo 217  J) Colombo 211  K) Colombo 208 
 
1.  (SBU) Summary:  Both government and pro-Liberation Tigers of 
Tamil Eelam (LTTE) sources reported heavy fighting and high 
casualties after counterattacks by the remaining LTTE forces in and 
near Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) and Chalai.  One source said the LTTE 
pushed back the Sri Lankan army about two kilometers near Chalai, 
north of the safe zone.  A ship carrying 500MT of food aid arrived 
off the safe zone on March 8, but was turned around for weather 
reasons before the shipment could be fully offloaded.   End 
Summary. 
 
Heavy Fighting in PTK and Chalai 
-------------------------------- 
 
2.  (SBU) Pro-LTTE websites boast of a counterattack against Sri 
Lankan Army (SLA) positions, which they claimed inflicted high 
casualties on the army in pitched fighting in and near 
Puthukkudiyiruppu.  LTTE sources reported 450 army personnel killed, 
and 1,272 injured (PTK) in the period March 3-6.  The Sri Lankan 
military reports killing 100 rebels on March 7-8. (Note: Both sides 
of the conflict frequently circulate inflated figures of casualties 
inflicted on the other side while downplaying their own losses.) 
 
3.  (SBU) According to one Embassy source, on March 7-8, the LTTE 
infiltrated cadres through SLA lines and pushed back the Sri Lankan 
army forward defense line by about two kilometers in the Chalai 
area, near the northern end of the safe zone. 
 
Nationalist Faction: 
US Should Not Evacuate Civilians 
-------------------------------- 
 
4.  (SBU) Wimal Weerawansa, leader of the National Freedom Front (an 
ultra nationalist faction which broke away from the JVP to join the 
ruling coalition), released a statement on March 9 saying "U.S.-led 
international forces" should not be permitted to assist evacuation 
of civilians from the safe zone because the U.S.is "more interested 
in safeguarding the terroriss." 
 
Partial Food Delivery to Trapped Civilians 
---------------------------------------- 
 
5.  (SU) Following Embassy interventions (Refs A and B), the 
Government provided a large-capacity ship for transportation of 500 
MTs of food aid (nearly all of it from U.S.) to the safe zone.  The 
fully-loaded ship, bearing an ICRC flag, departed Trincomalee on 
March 7 and arrived offshore of the safe zone on March 8.  Past 
World Food Program shipments have not exceeded 40MT, so the 500MT 
shipment posed offloading challenges; there are a limited number of 
fishing boats available for transporting food from ship to shore. 
144MT was offloaded on March 8.  The offloading operation was 
expected to take three to five days in total; however, forecasts of 
bad weather forced the return of the ship to Trincomalee on March 9 
before offloading all the food.  There is no further information on 
when the ship will return.  Mission Food for Peace officer estimates 
that once-weekly 500MT food shipments would provide adequate food 
 
aid to the trapped population (estimated at 100,000 to 200,000 
persons). 
 
ICRC Reports Worsening Conditions in Safe Zone 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
6.  (SBU) In a March 7 briefing to foreign heads of mission, the 
Deputy Country Director of the International Committee of the Red 
Cross characterized as a "fig leaf" efforts to date to assist 
trapped civilians.  He reported that civilians were going hungry and 
were visibly losing weight.  (Note: The Sri Lankan Health Ministry, 
however, issued a strongly-worded rebuttal disputing that there was 
any basis for reports of starvation deaths among civilians in the 
pocket of territory still controlled by the LTTE.)  Of the roughly 
3,000 civilians evacuated by ICRC since February 11, approximately 
2,000 were "weapon-wounded."  While the Government permitted ICRC to 
ship in antibiotics recently, it has not been enough.  ICRC seeks 
Government permission to bring in expatriate technical experts, 
particularly in water/sanitation, as well as a field hospital, to 
buttress aid efforts.  ICRC's urgent message was to "get more people 
out, get more assistance in" to the safe zone. 
 
Reported Civilian Casualties 
---------------------------- 
 
7.  (SBU) Tamil sources from within the LTTE-controlled area report 
209 civilians were killed in the period March 3-6, and 481 persons 
fled into Government-controlled territory on March 6-8.  The Tamil 
National Alliance parliamentary group issued a statement claiming 
over 2,150 civilians have been killed by bombing campaigns carried 
out by the Sri Lankan armed forces since January 1, 2009. (Note: 
Such reports from Tamil sources cannot be confirmed and are 
frequently exaggerated.)  The Ministry of Defense website reported 
45 civilians fled the LTTE-controlled area on March 8. 
 
8.  (SBU) COMMENT: Both sides speak of heavy fighting and high 
casualties.  This appears to undermine government claims that only 
about 500 LTTE cadres remain: it is not clear how such a small force 
would be capable of keeping government forces in the area numbering 
about 50,000 at bay while simultaneously preventing 100,000 to 
200,000 civilians in the "safe zone" from fleeing.  Heavy military 
action in Chalai will create further obstacles to the government's 
objective of creating a humanitarian corridor in that area for 
civilians to escape the fighting.  Government sources said the ship 
came under fire from the LTTE.  However, the ICRC said that firing 
near the supply ships was not unusual and that the relief workers 
were accustomed to this. 
 
BLAKE