Sri Lanka president orders New Year halt to fighting

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's president on Sunday ordered the military not to attack the Tamil Tigers during a two-day holiday to let thousands of civilians 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 and ending Asia's longest-running civil war.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa said 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, and again urged the Tigers to surrender and renounce violence.

"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 civilians 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.

The LTTE so far has refused any diplomatic entreaties to let the civilians go and insists they 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.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday welcomed Rajapaksa's move "as a useful first step" despite being less than the several-day pause he had suggested to the president in a phone call last week.

"In particular the LTTE must allow civilians to choose whether they stay or leave," Ban said in a statement.

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.

THOUSANDS AT RISK

Ban's call echoed a statement from the mediators of Sri Lanka's peace process -- the United States, Britain, Norway and Japan -- on Friday that urged the Tigers to end the "futile fighting" and the military not to shoot into the no-fire zone.

"With tens of thousands of lives at risk on the beaches of northern Sri Lanka, I call on government forces to adhere scrupulously to the commitments of the government about non-use of heavy weapons," Ban said.

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 Oslo, pro-LTTE demonstrators broke into the Sri Lankan embassy and trashed it on Sunday, police said. It is the first of several demonstrations by pro-LTTE supporters around the world in recent weeks that has turned violent.

On Saturday, more than 100,000 Tamils marched in central London to demand a cease-fire, which diplomats say is unlikely to happen.

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.

(Additional reporting by John Acher in Oslo. Writing by Bryson Hull; Editing by Sophie Hares)