Tamil civilians protest against LTTE

Ranil Wijayapala

BATTICALOA: Thousands of Tamil civilians yesterday staged a protest in Batticaloa and Mankerni demanding the LTTE to allow more than 30,000 civilians forcibly kept by them in Vakarai and Mankerni areas to cross into cleared areas in Batticaloa.

Military sources in Batticaloa told the Daily News more than 1,500 people in Batticaloa and over 1,000 people in Mankerni engaged in this protest last morning demanding LTTE to allow civilians to come to Government controlled areas.

Hundreds of civilians who had fled Vakarai through jungle terrain and by sea and sheltered at various refugee camps in Mankerni also joined this protest as they needed to bring in their relatives forcibly kept by the LTTE in Vakarai.

According to sources in Batticaloa, hundreds of civilians protested in front of the Batticaloa office of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission demanding the SLMM to exert pressure on the LTTE to allow civilians to move into Government controlled areas.

The civilians who fled the Vakarai area now sheltered at the Mankerni refugee camp told this reporter last week that LTTE was not allowing the civilians to flee from the area pointing guns at them and indiscriminately firing on hundreds of civilians trying to cross into Government controlled areas.

"We arrived in Mankerni through jungle in fear of being caught to LTTE cadres," the civilians who wished to remain unidentified in fear of their lives, told the Daily News.

According to Security Forces since November 1, 1,787 people had arrived in Government controlled areas in Batticaloa through jungle and by sea. The Security Forces in coordination with the GA in Batticaloa, the ICRC and a consortium of NGOs took a food convoy to Vakarai via the Kajuwatta entry exit point on Monday afternoon.