New years' halt to Sri Lanka fighting

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's president on Sunday ordered the military not to attack the Tamil Tigers during a two-day holiday in order to allow thousands of civilians to escape a no-fire zone where they are being held by the separatists.

Soldiers have encircled the remnants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a 17 square km (6 sq mile) no-fire zone on the northeast coast, and are close to crushing them as a conventional force and ending Asia's longest-running civil wars.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa said that people should be "given uninhibited freedom of movement from the no-fire zone" in the Sinhala and Tamil New Year period on Monday and Tuesday.

"With this objective in view, His Excellency has directed the armed forces of the state to restrict their operations during the New Year to those of a defensive nature," the presidential statement said.

There was no immediate comment from the LTTE, whose agreement to let the people go is essential. The United Nations and witnesses say people are being kept as human shields and forced conscripts or being shot as they try to flee.

In late January, Rajapaksa gave a 48-hour window of safe passage to civilians and urged the Tigers to let them go, but the rebels refused.

The LTTE so far has refused any diplomatic entreaties to get them to let people leave whom they insist are staying by choice.

Diplomats have been working furiously to negotiate an exit strategy for the people, who number 60,000 according to the government and around 100,000, according to the United Nations.

Rajapaksa again urged the LTTE to surrender.

"In the true spirit of the season, it is timely for the LTTE to acknowledge its military defeat and lay down its weapons and surrender. The LTTE must also renounce terrorism and violence permanently," the statement said.

The Tigers have vowed not to give up their fight for a separate nation for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority, which has engulfed the Indian Ocean island nation in a civil war that has killed at least 70,000 since 1983.

Since LTTE fighters wear vials of cyanide in case of capture, surrender is seen as unlikely despite the overwhelming military firepower facing them.

The mediators of Sri Lanka's peace process -- the United States, Britain, Norway and Japan -- on Friday urged the Tigers to end the "futile fighting" and urged the military not to fire into the no-fire zone so the civilians will be safe.

The military denies shooting into civilian areas and says claims it does are Tiger propaganda. It has also refused all calls for a cease-fire, saying the Tigers repeatedly have used them to regroup to fight another day.

In the latest of a series of international demonstrations over the war, around 100,000 people marched through London on Saturday to demand a cease-fire between Sri Lankan forces and the Tigers.

The march through central London, organised by a British Tamil group, was the biggest yet in a week of demonstrations by Tamils and their supporters in various cities.

(Writing by Bryson Hull; Editing by Jerry Norton)