Lanka says operation will continue till Prabhakaran captured

With the Tamil Tigers on the verge of total defeat, Sri Lanka said on Thursday that it would keep up its military offensive until the leaders of the LTTE, mainly its chief Velupillai Prabhakaran was captured "dead or alive".

Terming the international calls for a ceasefire as "pre-mature", the Lankan defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said: "after 30 years, the time has come finally for Prabhakaran and other Tiger leaders to be captured dead or alive".

"The government would not stop until that end was achieved," he told the visiting British Foreign secretary David Miliband and other delegation members, the Island Newspaper reported today.

The top Lankan official, who is also the brother of president Mahinda Rajapaksa, told the British delegation that a truce would only help the Tiger supremo Prabhakaran, who is believed to be holed up with his remnants fighters on a tiny patch of four sq km on the island's northeast coast.

His remarks come as Prabhakaran's close comrade-in-arms and now a government minister Karuna Amman said on Thursday that the LTTE chief and his top aides have been unable to flee due to a heightened vigil.

The defence secretary did not mince his words, when he said it was Sri Lankan troops and civilians who had perished in the conflict and therefore the government was determined to finish off the LTTE, the paper said.

Rajapaksa said humanitarian concerns were only a ploy employed by some people to extricate Prabhakaran and his top leaders from the mess they had got into.

He said a truce would only be used by LTTE to regroup.

Miliband, who came here along with his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner, had impressed upon the Sri Lankan government to order a ceasefire to allow Tamil civilians trapped in northern war zone to be taken to safety. The two leaders also asked Colombo to allow international aid agencies access to the war zone.

To Miliband's queries on civilian deaths in the conflict, the Lankan official said Britain should not be duped by the disinformation campaign the LTTE was carrying out.

The Defence secretary said it was up to the British delegation to decide whether it should believe what a terrorist group said or what a responsible officer of a legitimate government told them. "The choice is yours," the paper quoted him as saying.

French Foreign minister, who was also present in the meeting, requested that the UN be given access to the civilian zone held by the LTTE.

The Defence secretary said no one was safe in that area and the government could not guarantee anyone's safety.

"Kouchner replied that he was prepared to visit the area himself. He said he would take the risk and go there," the newspaper said. A smiling Rajapaksa told the French Foreign minister that the LTTE was so desperate that he, too, could be taken hostage.

"I don't mind that risk," the newspaper quoted Kouchner as saying.

"My problem is not what the LTTE will do to you," the Defence secretary said laughing, "instead it is that should such a thing happen, we would not be able to take Prabhakaran as planned."