Aid groups seek access to Tamils

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Aid groups and the United Nations appealed yesterday to be allowed to survey the aftermath of the final battle of Sri Lanka's civil war and pushed for unfettered access to 280,000 Tamils displaced from the former combat zone.

While the nation celebrated the crushing of the 25-year Tamil insurgency, the army clashed with two squads of rebels in the east of the country, an area under the government's control for more than two years. The military said all eight insurgents were killed as they were preparing ambushes.

Soldiers manning checkpoints in the capital remained vigilant; the government feared sleeper cells might seek revenge for the death of rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and the battlefield defeat in the north, where he had ruled a breakaway ministate until early this year.

Pressure mounted on President Mahinda Rajapaksa to open areas that have been off limits to independent journalists and aid workers for months, amid reports that thousands of civilians were killed in the crossfire between the army and Tamil Tiger rebels in the war's final weeks.

Since last weekend, aid trucks have been restricted from the largest camp, bringing the distribution of supplies there to "a temporary standstill," said Monica Zanarelli, deputy head of operations for South Asia for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Until then, the Red Cross had delivered water, food, hygiene kits, baby-care parcels, emergency household items, and kitchen utensils to the camp, known as Menik Farm, which housed 130,000 refugees, she said on the Red Cross Web site.

"There are several issues that need urgent attention, including overcrowding and the limited services available at the camps," according to U.N. refugee agency spokesman Ron Redmond. "Civilians coming out of the conflict zone are sick, hungry, and suffering from acute malnourishment and dehydration," he said in Geneva.

Rishard Badurdeen, minister for resettlement, said foreign access to camps was restricted because fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, as the group is formally known, were hiding among refugees.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pressed for U.N. access to the war zone when he met Sri Lanka's health minister in Geneva on Tuesday, U.N. spokeswoman Elena Ponomareva said. The Red Cross also urged permission to aid anyone left on the battlefield, said Paul Castella, head of the group's Sri Lanka office. Ban has asked to see the camps when he visits Sri Lanka tomorrow. The U.N. says at least 7,000 civilians were killed and 16,000 wounded in recent fighting.