UN Security Council yesterday (27) received a briefing by Under Secretary General Sir John Holmes who visited Sri Lanka at President Rajapaksa's invitation last week. The briefing did not result in a ceasefire call to Sri Lanka from the Security Council, but general agreement that the LTTE must lay down arms and ease suffering of civilians.

At the end of the briefing Sir John Holmes told reporters that humanitarian concerns about the people held captive by the LTTE remains a major concern while the concerns about IDPs who have already come to cleared areas seems less than what was feared for. He was strongly critical of the LTTE's continuing ruthlessness by not allowing people to leave the conflict area. Sir John had good words about increasing cooperation with the government and made positive comments about the Government's policy and objective to send back about 80 percent of IDPs as soon as possible or within a year. He was strongly critical of the LTTE's continuing ruthlessness by not allowing people to leave the conflict area.

Sir John appealed to "all those with any influence on the position of the Tigers to use that influence to force them to let the civilians go". "There is no time to lose" he said.

He described the situation of trapped people as dire but acknowledged IDPS in transit camps are reasonably well. He was not aware of major outbreak of disease in the conflict area. He gave some descriptions of his conversations with IDPs and commented on the fairly satisfactory physical conditions and the efforts made to have acceptable screening procedures.

The President of the Security Council, Ambassador Takasu of Japan , was clear in saying that Sri Lanka situation is not on the Council agenda and that what was given today was a briefing on a visit by Sir John Holmes at the invitation of the President of Sri Lanka. He also said in response to reporter's question that Sri Lanka cannot be compared with other situations like Sudan where there are implications for international peace and security, as Sri Lanka's is an internal issue where a Government is combating a group described as a terrorist organization by many countries.

He confirmed that there is no formal decision for pronouncement about the situation by the Security Council but that all members were hopeful that Government will continue to do all it can to protect civilians and remain engaged with Secretary General and the UN team for that purpose.

The Japanese Ambassador said that one has to understand the nature of the conflict and the intransigent nature of the LTTE and acknowledged the precautions Government had taken to minimize casualties. It was also well known that the Tigers were firing from behind civilians but irrespective of the source of fire there is great deal of suffering as a result of the conflict, he said.

The President of the Council reiterated that laying down arms by the Tigers will be the most practical way of bringing this conflict to an end. After the briefing several ambassadors to the UN told reporters that LTTE should lay down arms to end conflict.

The British Ambassador said they have all along been sympathetic to a briefing but made his position very clear that Sri Lanka is not on the Agenda of the Council and the spotlight should be on the LTTE which is a proscribed as terrorist outfit and they should lay down arms and allow civilians to go free so that political process can begin.

The Russian Ambassador Vitaly I. Churkin was more categorical in saying that the today's briefing is a one time affair and that it will not go beyond that. This is an internal situation against a terrorist group which the Government is trying to handle through military and political means.

Observers at the UN say that the LTTE lobbyist's attempt to get UN Security Council to give them further breathing space through a phony ceasefire failed to materialize. The LTTE has only to blame itself for holding civilians hostage and shooting the very people who were trying to flee to freedom. The Government on the other hand seems to have scored by expanding its cooperation and assistance through the UN, ICRC and by the action of the armed forces who took extraordinary measures of restraint and precaution to minimize civilian casualties while taking more casualties among its ranks, they said.