Sri Lanka denies 20,000 casualties claim

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, May 30 (UPI) -- Sri Lankan officials say a published report claiming more than 20,000 civilians were killed during their attack on Tamil rebels is totally false.

A senior official from Sri Lanka's Center for National Security told the BBC Saturday the death estimate by The Times of London -- which produced a number far higher than previously thought -- was wildly off the mark.

Official figures have put the civilian death toll from the fighting to finish off the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam separatists at 6,500. No reliable figures on the civilian death toll exist partly because access to refugee camps has been restricted by the government, the United Nations says.

Colombo's insistence that only about 110,000 civilians were trapped during the fighting in the country's north was followed by more than 250,000 civilians emerging from the area afterwards, international aid groups told the BBC.

The Times reported that evidence suggests Sri Lanka shelled civilian refugee camps that had been commandeered by Tamil Tigers for use as military encampments and mortar positions in the last throes of the war.