NORTHERN SRI LANKA SITREP 74

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 COLOMBO 000535

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA, SCA/INSB 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: DECL: 05/17/2019
TAGS: PREF MOPS PHUM PGOV PREL ASEC CE
SUBJECT: NORTHERN SRI LANKA SITREP 74

REF: A) COLOMBO 533 B) COLOMBO 529 C) COLOMBO 522 D)
COLOMBO 519 E) COLOMBO 514 F)COLOMBO 507 G)
COLOMBO 501 H) COLOMBO 492 I) COLOMBO 484
J) COLOMBO 477 K) COLOMBO 470 AND PREVIOUS

Classified By: AMBASSADOR ROBERT BLAKE, JR. REASONS: 1.4 B AND D.


1. (C) SUMMARY: May 16-17 marked a watershed day in Sri
Lanka's conflict with the LTTE, as an estimated 72,000
civilians escaped the safe zone. Remnants of the LTTE
continued to mount resistance in an area of less than one
square kilometer in the government's unilaterally declared
"no fire zone." President Rajapaksa is expected to announce
the end of fighting in Parliament on May 19. The Defense
Secretary announced publicly on May 17 that there were no
civilians remaining in the conflict zone. However, a Tamil
member of Parliament and the Bishop of Mannar (protect)
separately contacted Embassy to report that tens of thousands
of civilians were still in the conflict area and at grave
risk. Ambassador contacted senior GSL officials throughout
the day, including Secretary of Defense Gothabaya Rajapaksa
and Foreign Minister Bogollagama, to urge acceptance of a
mediated surrender of the remaining Tigers and maximum
restraint on the part of the military to avoid further
civilian casualties, particularly after the reports from the
Bishop of Mannar of continued high numbers of civilians in
the safe zone. Rajapaksa refused to accept mediated
surrender on the grounds that the fighting was all but over,
but said troops had been instructed to accept anyone who
wishes to surrender. Ambassador spoke to Presidential
Advisor Basil Rajapaksa to request access for the ICRC to
evacuate dead and wounded. Rajapaksa refused, contending the
GSL could manage on its own. Four government of Sri Lanka
doctors and an Additional Government Agent escaped from the
conflict zone on May 16 and were taken into custody by the
military. One doctor with serious wounds was airlifted to
Colombo, two or three other doctors were held for
interrogation at Omanthai, and the Additional Government
Agent was taken to an IDP camp. UNSYG Chief of Staff
Nambiar, now in Colombo, was promised access to live UAV
footage of the safe zone. He also has requested to visit the
safe zone and the camps in Vavuniya. He said the GSL has
agreed to both in principle. See final paragraph for
proposed USG statement to be released at the end of the armed
conflict. End summary.

LTTE Pitches Surrender
--------------


2. (C) Norwegian Ambassador Hattrem called Ambassador late
evening May 16 to report that he had received a phone call
from Selvarasa Padmanathan ("KP") stating that the LTTE were
prepared to surrender without conditions to a neutral third
party. Ambassador called ICRC head of delegation Paul
Castella, who said he had been in conversations with the GSL,
and that ICRC staff were prepared to go into the conflict
zone by military helicopter. Castella said that Defense
Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa had agreed to the arrangement,
but first wanted the names of the LTTE leaders who were
prepared to surrender. Despite helpful efforts from Norway
and SCA Acting DAS Owen, the LTTE has yet to provide such a
list.

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3. (C) Ambassador spoke to Gothabaya Rajapaksa on the
morning of May 17 to urge him to allow the ICRC into the
conflict zone to mediate a surrender. Rajapaksa commented,
"We're beyond that now," reporting that approximately 50,000
civilians had escaped from the conflict zone overnight and in
the early morning hours, and very few remained. He said that
the LTTE still held only a very small area, inland from the
beach, in the conflict zone. He said the Army had issued
instructions to field commanders to accept surrenderees. He
said there were intelligence intercepts of communications
between some LTTE leaders, but they had no knowledge of the
whereabouts of Pottu Amman or Prabhakaran.

Status of Doctors
--------------


4. (C) A UN contact told DATT that the Additional Government
Agent who came out of the conflict zone on May 15-16 had been
transferred to an IDP camp in Vavuniya. One government
doctor with serious injuries from shelling was airlifted by
the Air Force to the hospital in Anuradhapura. The other two
government doctors were still undergoing interrogation at the
IDP reception point in Omanthai. (Note: these doctors have
provided extensive information to the foreign media on
Government shelling of the safe zone, leading to obvious
concern now for their welfare.) Ambassador told the Defense
Secretary that we had received reports that government
doctors had come out of the conflict zone on May 16 and were
now being held for interrogation at Omanthai. Ambassador
said it was important to be sure that they were safe and
being treated properly. Gothabaya assured Ambassador this
was the case, and noted that "several others have called" on
the matter.

Prabhakaran Status Unclear
--------------


5. (SBU) There are numerous reports that Prabhakaran and
other LTTE leaders may have committed suicide on May 16 by
blowing themselves up. Most of the reports appear to be
sourced to the website of Toronto-based Tamil journalists
D.B.S. Jeyaraj: "Speculation is rife among knowledgeable
circles in Colombo that Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is no more among the
living. It is widely believed that the 54 year old Tiger
supremo who was born on November 26, 1954 has committed
suicide along with more than 300 of his deputies and senior
cadres in the Mullivaaikal area of Karaithuraipatru GAG
division in Mullaitheevu district." (Note: Embassy has no
way to verify this independently. The rumor appears to be
connected to several large explosions heard from inside the
small LTTE-controlled area on the night of May 16-17. We
cannot yet confirm wire service reports sourced to anonymous
Army officers that Prabhakaran's body has been found.)

Information from Military Sources
--------------


6. (C) At 10 a.m. on May 17, an Army contact told DATT that
fighting had resumed that morning, after a virtual freeze on
operations overnight as the troops processed IDPs. The army

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said the LTTE was confined to an area four hundred meters by
four hundred meters. There were "several hundred" civilians
among them, possibly LTTE family members. According to the
Army, 50,000 civilians had escaped over the last two days.
The LTTE continued setting fires overnight, destroying
vehicles, fuel and other logistics. The Army recovered 200
LTTE bodies on land, some killed in action, others suicides.
The Army is recovering the LTTE bodies from six small craft
that tried to break out in the early morning hours across the
Nanthi Kadal lagoon to the jungles of Mullaitivu. None got
away. Intercepts indicated that LTTE leader Laxman and one
other leader may have been among them. The Army is trying to
identify the recovered bodies. There were no intercepts of
Sea Tiger leader Soosai or Tiger intelligence chief Pottu
Amman since yesterday. The Army contact claimed that there
were many Army casualties with burns, likely from LTTE white
phosphorous munitions. He also claimed the Army is not using
artillery, since the contested area is too small.


7. (C) An Air Force source confirmed that fighting was
continuing. UAV coverage shows the LTTE confined to an area
in the southwest corner of the conflict zone, north of the
Nanthi Kadal lagoon's outlet to the sea. He said 10,000 )
15,000 more civilians separated from the LTTE were still on
the move. There were no signs of Prabhakaran, Pottu Amman or
Soosai.


8. (C) According to the UN's head of security in Sri Lanka,
some ICRC local staff came out of the conflict zone in the
night from May 16-17. Of the two remaining local UN staff
in the conflict zone, at least one had been forcibly
recruited by the LTTE, and the other may also have joined.
Their whereabouts and status were unknown.

Continued Reports of Civilians in Safe Zone
--------------


9. (C) PolOff received a call on May 17 from Tamil National
Alliance Member of Parliament for Jaffna Gajendrakumar
Ponnambalam. Ponnambalam said he had been in touch with "KP"
late the previous evening, who told him that 3,000 had been
killed and 25,000 wounded on May 16. Intense shelling was
continuing. KP said the LTTE was now prepared to surrender.
Ponnambalam said he had been in discussion with Senior
Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa about traveling to the
conflict zone along with a bishop to arrange the surrender of
the remaining LTTE forces. However, Basil was now refusing
to confirm the trip pending the outcome of a meeting with
President Rajapaksa who had just returned from the G-11
summit in Jordan. Ponnambalam estimated that there could
still be as many as 100,000 civilian left in the conflict
zone.


10. (C) Ambassador called Basil Rajapaksa to note the reports
of many dead and wounded lying in the conflict zone, and
again requested access for the ICRC to the area to evacuate
the wounded. Basil energetically refused, saying that the
ICRC had failed on three consecutive days to evacuate
wounded, even though the Additional Government Agent had said
it was safe to do so. Rajapaksa noted that the Army was
evacuating wounded civilians by air to Anuradhapura and could
deal with the current situation by itself. He said the

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government urgently required shelter, food and water for
approximately 50,000 new arrivals expected soon in the camps.


11. (C) Norwegian DCM told PolOff that a priest in Jaffna
had called her to say that another priest in the conflict
zone had called him on a satellite phone. He said he was
with a group of 40 children, who were pinned down in bunkers
in the conflict zone and dared not move because of intensive
incoming shelling. She reported that the ICRC deputy head of
delegation had told her that ICRC local staff in the conflict
zone had informed them there were still many civilians
remaining.


12. (C) The Bishop of Mannar called PolOff to inform us that
there were seven Catholic priests still in the conflict zone,
tending to about 80 parishioners. The priests estimated that
there were 60,000 to 75,000 civilian left in the zone,
according to the Bishop. The Bishop considered that the
Defense Secretary's statement that there were no civilians
left was "extremely dangerous," because soldiers would now
assume that anyone still in bunkers was LTTE combatants. The
priests had told him they were unable to escape because of
intense firing near their location. Conditions varied
greatly within the zone, they said, and they had been unable
to move away along with others who had escaped. The Bishop
pleaded for a two-day cessation of hostilities for evacuation
of the dead and wounded and so that the remaining civilians
could get out.


13. (SBU) USAID Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance
representative and PRM deputy regional refugee officer plan
to travel to Vavuniya May 18 ) 22 to visit the IDP camps and
assess the adequacy of preparations for the new IDPs. OFDA
recently provided $1.7 million to UNICEF for nutrition,
water, sanitation and hygiene and $880,000 to IOM for health
clinics and ambulances in IDP sites.

Nambiar Readout
--------------


14. (SBU) UN SYG Chief of Staff Vijay Nambiar told
Ambassador the afternoon of May 17 that the government had
reported that 72,000 IDPs have reached Omanthai in the last
24 hours. Defense Secretary Rajapaksa told him that fighting
was still going on in the North but that all the civilians
were believed to have exited the safe zone. The Secretary
offered to provide Nambiar access to live UAV footage that
the UN is now working to arrange through the Air Force.
Nambiar also requested access both to the safe zone and the
camps in Vavuniya. He said the GSL has agreed in principle
to both but has not specified when this might occur.


15. (C) Ambassador reported to Nambiar that the Bishop of
Mannar had indicated to the Embassy that thousands of
civilians may still be in the safe zone. Ambassador briefed
Nambiar that he had just spoken with Foreign Minister
Bogollagama to relay this information and urge that the
Government inform the Sri Lankan military of this so that
they do not assume that everyone remaining in the safe zone
is an LTTE cadre. Ambassador urged the Foreign Minister to
tell the Defense Secretary that the forces should abide the
President's commitment not to use heavy weapons and to do

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everything possible to protect those civilians who remain.
Ambassador also urged the GSL to allow the ICRC to access the
safe zone, both to help evacuate the wounded and to reassure
the international community that the GSL was taking care to
protect civilians. Ambassador urged that Nambiar reinforce
these messages on May 18 with GSL officials. Nambiar agreed
to do so.


16. (SBU) Embassy recommends the Department issue a
statement along the following lines after the announcement of
the end of the armed conflict ends follows: (begin draft
statement)

The United States welcomes the fact that the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam LTTE an organization that has
terrorized the people of Sri Lanka for decades, no longer
control any territory within Sri Lanka. This 26-year-old
conflict has cost tens of thousands of Sinhalese and Tamil
lives, uprooted countless Sri Lankans from their homes, and
has brutally divided the nation. We especially recognize the
tremendous loss of life and hardship endured by civilians in
northern Sri Lanka during the past weeks and months.

To truly defeat terrorism, the Government of Sri Lanka must
immediately begin to heal the wounds of the conflict and work
toward building a democratic, prosperous, tolerant and united
Sri Lanka. A lasting peace in Sri Lanka depends on
Sinhalese, Tamils and all other Sri Lankans working together
to achieve new power sharing arrangements that safeguard and
promote the rights of all Sir Lankans.

The United States remains deeply concerned for the welfare of
the hundreds of thousands of Internally Displaced Persons
(IDPs) uprooted by the recent fighting. We call on the
Government to open additional sites for IDPs to ease
overcrowding in the existing facilities. We welcome and urge
the Government of Sri Lanka to abide by its commitment to
return the majority of IDPs to their homes by the end of this
year. We also urge the Government to work hand in hand with
the UN, ICRC, and non-government organizations to ensure all
IDPs are accorded rights and care meeting the highest
international standards.

(end draft statement)

BLAKE
MOORE