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BABIES with shattered knees, women whose eyes had been hit by blast fragments and teenagers who died from shock emerged in video footage from the palm-fringed killing fields in Sri Lanka's north, where Tamil rebels are making their last stand.
As the Tamil Tigers ignored the government's 24-hour deadline to surrender yesterday, some 9,000 civilians fled the no-fire zone, adding to the 30,000 who escaped on Monday.
The video shot by the Sri Lankan Red Cross also showed many of the civilians clutching whatever meagre possessions they could grab, and wading through the knee-deep waters of a lagoon to reach safety.
However, aid groups estimated that between 50,000 and 100,000 people remained trapped with the rebels.
Many Tamil civilians had been held by the rebels to act as human shields, and their escape was possible only because Sri Lankan army troops had penetrated an embankment to give the hostages a way out.
Yesterday, as the Sri Lankan army prepared for its final ground assault on the last Tiger redoubt, both sides exchanged charges of extreme brutality.
The rebels said more than 1,000 civilians had been killed and many more injured by army shelling.
'Sri Lankan forces have deployed three types of internationally banned weapons - cluster bombs, napalm and phosphorus - causing heavy civilian casualties,' said Mr B. Nadesan, who heads the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The military denied the LTTE's claims, accusing the Tigers of forcing civilians to stay behind or be killed if they tried to leave.
Meanwhile, an Agence France-Presse report said that Sri Lankan troops had captured more ground and that the last strip of coastal jungle held by the Tigers had been sliced in two.The agency quoted the Tigers as saying the coastal village of Puttumatalan, which was used as a key port for supplies to the rebel-held territory, had fallen to government forces.
The area was also used by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to operate a ferry to evacuate wounded civilians from the remaining rebel-held territory.
The Tigers said they had suggested an alternative landing place for the ICRC to operate and called for urgent supplies of food and medicine. velloor@sph.com.sg
