Colombo - Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers have prevented international aid workers from evacuating some 300 hospital patients inside rebel-held territory, a report said Wednesday.
A convoy of two dozen vehicles arranged by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations to transport the sick was barred from crossing the front line, the state-run Daily News said.
"The Tiger terrorists... (are) holding all those patients captive as human shields," the Daily News said.
It said the convoy had been detained by "gun-carrying" fighters and that there had been "heated argument" with Red Cross and UN officials.
The patients from the Puthukkudiriruppu area in the district of Mullaittivu were to be handed over to the military and transferred to a hospital in Vavuniya, which lies in a government-controlled area in the north.
The Red Cross spokeswoman in Colombo, Sarasi Wijeratne, declined to comment on the newspaper report. UN officials and the Tigers were not immediately available for comment.
Sri Lanka ordered most aid workers out of the rebel-held Wanni region last September, saying it was for their own safety as fighting between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and government forces escalated.
However, the ICRC is allowed to operate while UN convoys routinely carry food and other supplies to some 250 000 people trapped behind the front lines.
Several UN staff and their families have been prevented from leaving the embattled areas by the Tigers since last week, the UN said.
On Tuesday, the ICRC said "hundreds" have died and "scores" of civilians wounded in the ongoing heavy fighting in the Wanni area, where the last remaining rebel fighters are holed up.
"The violence is preventing the ICRC from operating in the region," said Jacques de Maio, ICRC head of operations for South Asia, calling the situation a "major humanitarian crisis".
"People are being caught in the crossfire, hospitals and ambulances have been hit by shelling and several aid workers have been injured while evacuating the wounded," he said.
The ICRC appealed to both sides to allow civilians to leave the combat zone. - AFP