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Amid increasing violence by Sri Lankan troops against Tamil civilians, many are fleeing government-controlled areas to areas controlled by the Liberation Tigers and a small number are even fleeing to south India, reversing a trickle of returns from there since the February 2002 truce.
Over the weekend, several hundred families fled from areas controlled by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in the Jaffna peninsula and crossed to LTTE held Vanni region through the Muhamalai, bringing the number of families seeking refugee there to over 4,000.
Many
families have shifted from the villages of Ariyalai, Velanai,
Punguduthivu, Kayts, Thambatti, Kodikamam, Varani, Karainagar and
Velvettithurai. They could be seen on the road with their belongings
packed into trucks, minibuses and auto rickshaws, reports said.
The
displaced were received at transit centre for displaced people set up
by Tamil Rehabilitation Organization on the LTTE side of the checkpoint.
They
were provided with cooked meals before they were sent to other welfare
centres. Some families have choosen to live with their families and
friends, the TRO said.
In
Trincomalee district, more than one thousand families have fled from
their homes in the SLA controlled divisions of Muttur and Seruvila in
the Trincomalee district due to harassment and intimidation allegedly
by the government troops manning sentries located in their villages and
have sought refuge in schools and with their relatives in the LTTE held
areas.
As
of January 11 about 500 families from Mallikaithivu, Kachchanoor and
Iruthayapuram had taken refuge in two schools in Thanganagarâ€â€an
LTTE-controlled area, WSWS reported.
About
750 families or 2,371 people from Menkamam, Kumarapuram and Kilivetti
had taken shelter in nearby schools or in the homes of relatives after
cordon-and-search operations by government forces.
Here
also, the TRO has deployed its volunteers in Eachchilampathu and other
areas to supply cooked meals to refugees and sent a stock of mattresses
and bed sheets for the displaced.
In
Mannar district region in the west of Sri Lanka, about two hundred
fisher families, residing in Siruthoppu near Pesalai, have moved to
Vankalai about 20 km away from the military-controlled Mannar town
following intimidation and threats by security forces. They took their
fibreglass fishing boats and nets and other fishing gear in tractors
and available means of transport.
Mannar bishop Joseph Rayeppu says a number of families had recently sought shelter in local churches fearing reprisals.
Since
recent attacks on Navy buses, masked men have regularly entered their
houses in the night threatening inmates with death and other
atrocities. Several people were burned alive in a retaliatory attack by
Navy sailors on a Tamil settlement.
Indian
officials said the refugees arriving in Tamil Nadu are mostly from
Mannar. They reportedly find it easy to hire a boat from Thalaimannar
and are dropped on an island close to Tamil Nadu. The Tamil Nadu
fishermen bring them ashore.
“What
these refugees are saying is that the Navy there wants information on
the LTTE movements. It suspects that some of the local people were
working with the Tamil Tigers in the recent operations,� a senior
police officer told The Hindu newspaper.
“Apparently,
those living with their families, especially children, want to move out
of Defence-controlled areas. Many have moved into LTTE territory while
these people have decided to come over to Tamil Nadu,� he said.
Meanwhile,
the Jaffna daily, Uthayan, in an editorial this week protested the
“collective punishment� being meted out to the Tamils by the Sri Lankan
military.
“It
is a common practice for oppressive governments to deal with the
pressures of a people’s movement by giving collective punishment to the
entire people. The freedom struggle in the Tamil homeland which has
become the people’s struggle is being handled by the Sinhala military
in the same way.�
“The
result is the beating and killing of innocent people to punish the
grenade attack carried out by someone else. These military actions are
not taken in the heat of the moment. These are well planed actions of
the military to threaten the people into submission.�
Tamil Guardian
SiberNews
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