President Mahinda Rajapaksa has met with two top Indian officials to discuss the bloody fighting in Sri Lanka's recent offensive against ethnic Tamil rebels. A government official says Rajapaksa met with India's National Security Adviser MK Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon in Colombo on Friday afternoon. India said on Thursday it was sending the pair to neighboring Sri Lanka to push for an immediate halt in the fighting to allow civilians to escape the war zone. 6, 500 civilians killed: UN A UN report says nearly 6,500 civilians have been killed in the fighting over the past three months. “We are very unhappy at the continued killing in Sri Lanka. All killing must stop. There must be an immediate cessation of all hostilities,” External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishu Prakash said in a statement on Thursday. At least 6,432 civilians were killed in the intense fighting over the past three months and 13,946 wounded, according to a private UN document circulated among diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka in recent days. The casualties were reported as “verified data” in the document, which was given to The Associated Press by a foreign diplomat on Friday. Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona said the government took special care to avoid civilian casualties, and said many of those killed were combatants dressed in civilian clothing. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said he would send a team of humanitarian experts to Sri Lanka to monitor the situation. The government agreed in principal to accept such a team but the details needed to be worked out, said Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe. “We're very concerned that the humanitarian provisions in place to receive these people are not sufficient to meet immediate needs,” said UN spokesman Gordon Weiss. Location station On Friday, the military chose Puttumatalan to showcase their successes and seemingly imminent victory over the LTTE by bringing in some of the journalists who have long been denied independent access to the combat zone. The drive from Kilinochchi revealed scenes of total devastation, as the armored vehicle passed through deserted villages where every structure bore the scars of months of intensive fighting. “The troops have been asked to move cautiously,” said military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, adding the rebels were holding non-combatants still trapped in the area as human shields. “The biggest challenge is to rescue the civilians without casualties,” Nanayakkara said. Puttumatalan is part of Mullaittivu district, which housed the LTTE's military headquarters.
