COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan minister has assured Tamils intending to leave areas held by the Tamil Tigers that the government would do its best to resettle them in other regions.

Mahinda Samarasinghe, the Minister for Disaster Management, said on Wednesday the government had started making plans for rehabilitation of the displaced.

However, the government as well as civil rights groups accuse the Tigers of trying to stop people from leaving regions under their control and forcing them to train for combat.

“We are ready to help these Tamil civilians. But if they are prevented from seeking safety in other areas, we are helpless,” Mr Samarasinghe said in a telephone interview.

On Monday the military announced the capture of Mallawi, a strategic town in the north which was being held by the LTTE since 2002. Sri Lanka’s state-run television channel has been showing footage of narrow barbed wired ‘cages’ in some areas of Killinochchi taken over by the rebels, alleging these were made by the Tigers to imprison those who refused to take combat training or tried to escape from the region.

“The more areas we take over in the north, the more we see the torture inflicted by the guerrillas on Tamil civilians and Tiger cadres who wish to leave the LTTE,” a military official said.

Military sources warn the clashes are expected to become bloodier in the days to come as troops inch further into the LTTE’s most fortified areas.

Human rights groups fear a humanitarian disaster would unfold after the fighting moves into densely populated regions.

The military, in acknowledgement of the apprehensions, last week dropped leaflets requesting civilians to take refuge in areas under the military’s control. But Tamil sources familiar with the Tigers’ strategy say they would tighten their stranglehold on civilians in the weeks to come.

“It is the civilians which the LTTE needs most at this time both as a human shield and also as a combat resource,” a Jaffna-based expert said.