By IANS,
Colombo : The Sri Lankan Army and Tamil Tiger rebels, with the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), have swapped the bodies of nearly 40 combatants killed in clashes between the two sides, the defence ministry said in a statement issued here said Thursday.
It said that military authorities serving in Omanthai in the northern Vavuniya district Wednesday evening received 19 “partly disfigured and decomposed corpses of army soldiers” that had been given to the ICRC by the rebels in Mullaitivu district.
“Of the 19 bodies, seven have been identified as those of soldiers who had gone missing in the Nachchikuda area Tuesday,” the statement said.
On Tuesday evening, military authorities handed over the dead bodies of 20 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels to the ICRC to be taken to the rebel-held areas.
“Most of the killed terrorists were from Mallavi, Palamoddai and Weli-Oya areas,” the defence ministry said.
In a separate statement, the ministry said that 41 rebels and five government soldiers were killed, while 50 rebels and 30 soldiers were wounded in sporadic clashes Wednesday in Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu and Weli-Oya areas.
The UN Wednesday announced that it was prepared to assist the government of Sri Lanka in its effort to provide humanitarian assistance to thousands of civilians who remain in the rebel-held Wanni region and to those civilians who leave the Wanni region due to escalation of violence.
Stressing that measures that comply with international obligations on the “protection of civilians during armed conflict provide vital options for civilians as they make individual choices about where to seek safety and succor”, the UN office here said that it has also raised with the LTTE its “urgent concern that civilians be allowed maximum freedom of movement at all times”.