'The death toll among refugees trapped in the last Tiger redoubt in north eastern Sri Lanka is three times higher than that acknowledged by the government. Sri Lankan authorities say their military observed a "no-fire-zone" and stopped using heavy weapons on April 27 when 100,000 Tamil civilians were trapped. However aerial pictures and witness testimony suggest the army in fact launched a three week artillery barrage from the end of April. Confidential United Nations documents say 7,000 civilians had died in the zone by the end of April and sources told the Times newspaper the toll then grew to around 1,000 a day. The figures would put the final death toll, before the zone was finally overrun and Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was killed, at more than 20,000.'
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