Sri Lanka considers amnesty deal for surrendering rebels

SRI LANKA’S government said yesterday it is considering an amnesty for Tamil Tiger rebels who surrender – although not for leaders of the insurgency, which is facing defeat after 25 years of civil war.

The rebels, meanwhile, asked Britain and France to keep pushing for a ceasefire to allow civilians to evacuate the war zone.

An estimated 50,000 noncombatants are trapped in a tiny coastal strip along with the cornered rebels in the island’s north-east. A recent United Nations report said about 6,500 civilians were killed in the area during the past three months.

The government has rejected the ceasefire calls, saying it is on the verge of victory.

Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said officials from the attorney general’s department are studying the legal basis for a possible pardon for rebels who surrender but a final decision has not been made.

He said any such offer would not be open to rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and others convicted for various attacks.

Samarasinghe said the government also plans to offer vocational training for surrendering rebels.

Tamil Tiger leaders have vowed no surrender. Every fighter is said to wear a cyanide capsule and swears an oath to swallow the capsule to avoid capture.

But the government says a number of rebels have already surrendered.

The Tamil Tigers’ political head, Balasingham Nadesan, wrote Saturday to British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, saying the insurgents are ready to “engage in the process to bring about a ceasefire and enter into negotiations for an enduring resolution to the conflict.”

Fighting continued yesterday. Military spokesman Brig Udaya Nanayakkara said the rebels were now confined to just a 4.5km coastal stretch.

A pro-rebel website reported on Saturday that government forces shelled a makeshift hospital in the war zone, killing 64 patients and bystanders.

A government doctor working there confirmed the death toll.