Sri Lankan military killed 20,000 civilians: paper
More than 20,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the final days of Sri Lanka's military operation to defeat Tamil Tigers rebels, the Times newspaper reported yesterday.
Sri Lanka's authorities say their forces stopped using heavy weapons on April 27 in a no-fire zone where there were about 100,000 Tamil civilians.
Citing confidential UN documents it acquired, the Times said the civilian death toll in the no-fire zone soared from late April, with around 1000 civilians killed daily until May 19.