what a situation ! estimates of 6500 dead over a couple of months , All Civilians ! a Stubborn terrorist group , and an even more stubborn Government ! Over one hundred thousand people that have scrambled for their lives ! all coming down to a small little Four square mile Area !And the Government Says (For the 6th or 7th Time ) that within a day or two it will all be over !
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COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa said on Thursday his government had no intention of a ceasefire with Tamil Tiger rebels, telling international critics the military's actions constituted a "humanitarian operation."
Sri Lanka has been under fresh pressure this week, from the European Union among others, to allow a ceasefire so civilians trapped in the tiny area the Tigers still hold can escape.
U.S. officials meanwhile told Reuters Washington wanted an IMF loan to Sri Lanka delayed to encourage Colombo to do more to help the civilians caught in the last redoubt of the Tigers, who have fought a 25-year war for a separate ethnic Tamil homeland.
"We have at no time gone for a ceasefire. We will not do so now. There is no time for that now," Rajapaksa said in a speech published on government websites.
"In the five or six days remaining we have given the opportunity for the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) to lay down their arms and surrender," he said, urging them to also let civilians leave.
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