Upto 5,000 civilians died in offensive against Tigers: Lanka

London, Jun 5: Rejecting reports that 20,000 civilians were killed in the army offensive against the LTTE, Sri Lanka has said upto 5,000 people died in the last stages of the war with the Tamil Tigers in the island's north.
"I would estimate it (civilians' casualties) altogether at 3,000 to 5,000," Rajiva Wijesinha, permanent secretary in Sri Lanka's ministry of disaster management and human rights, told The Guardian.

He attributed the deaths to the Tigers' use of refugees as human shields. "The Tigers had prepared for this hostage situation and the figures went up very badly," Wijesinha said, denying reports that 20,000 civilians were killed.

He also rejected an unpublished UN report that 7,000 people had been killed by the end of April.

Sri Lanka has been accused by the UN and western governments of using heavy weapons against a "no-fire zone" it had designated for civilians caught up in the last stages of the conflict on a narrow coastal strip in the north-east of the island.

Wijesinha said, "I asked the army and they said 'we're not using heavy weaponry' but that does not preclude what they describe as 81mm mortars, an infantry-weapon." PTI