Colombo:
A top UN official on Tuesday underlined the need for a halt in the fierce fighting in Sri Lanka and asked the LTTE guerrillas to allow trapped civilians cross over to the safe zone as government forces prepared to inflict a "decisive blow" to the rebels.
"I believe that a series of humanitarian pauses must be initiated immediately to allow civilians to leave and humanitarian actors to provide life-saving relief to the remaining population," said Walter Klin, the Representative of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon on Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons.
Klin urged Sri Lanka to pause offensives against Tamil Tiger rebels to enable the IDPs to cross over to the government held areas in the Wanni while asking them to brace for the huge challenge of rehabilitating thousands of fleeing Tamil civilians in the coming days.
Winding up his four-day visit to Sri Lanka, Klin also asked the LTTE to allow the besieged Tamil civilians under its control to move over to the army areas.
"Extraordinary efforts will be required of the Government, the United Nations, non-governmental organizations and donors, acting in cooperation, to successfully meet the humanitarian needs of this population, as well as those of the tens of thousands expected to arrive in the coming weeks and months," he said in a statement.