Britain and France Criticize Sri Lanka Rebels

Britain and France issued on Thursday a strongly worded criticism of the Tamil Tiger rebels for preventing civilians from leaving the small conflict zone in the north east of Sri Lanka.
“It is clear that the L.T.T.E. have been forcefully preventing civilians from leaving the conflict area and we deplore their determination to use civilians as a human shield,” the British foreign secretary, David Miliband, and his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, said in a joint statement.