A GUARANTEE of safe passage out of Sri Lanka by government troops and rebels led to the staff from the United Nations (UN) and other aid agencies leaving the country on Tuesday.
Aid agencies have been based in the town of Kilinochchi, in the north of the island, where rebel Tamil Tiger forces also have their headquarters.
A convoy of around 20 vehicles carrying UN and other staff left the town on Tuesday travelling south and arriving later in the town of Omantai, in government-controlled territory.
UN spokesman Gordon Weiss said a total of 40 UN staff had now pulled out although some local employees had decided to stay.
“We are pulling out reluctantly because of aerial bombing and artillery shelling”, he told the BBC Tamil service.
Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa has told reporters that the military would try to obliterate the rebels.
“We are focusing on war,” he said. “We can crush them. Why can’t we? They are in the jungle at the moment, and our forces are in the jungle at the moment.”
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been fighting for a separate Tamil homeland in the north and east for 25 years, which has led to the deaths of more than 70,000 people.
