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LTTE detaining refugees: Colombo

B. Muralidhar Reddy

Rajapaksa urged to help trace missing vice-chancellor

COLOMBO: The LTTE on Monday accused the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) of breaking all "international records" in its attempt to take over Vaharai region now under the control of the Tigers and complained that its long-pending request to treat the refugee camps in the area as "safe havens" has not been met.

In a statement posted on its web site, the Tigers said they have been unsuccessfully pleading since mid-October with the international agencies to persuade the army to treat designated refugee centres as conflict-free zone. The statement of the LTTE follows a call by the United Nations to the Government and the Tigers for a cease-fire to enable safe passage to those caught in the cross-fire after a group of fleeing displaced persons died in the rough seas when their boats capsized.

"Human shields"

The LTTE claimed that its Trincomalee political head, S. Elilan, had taken the ICRC representative for Batticaloa, Kashesi Maryam, to the refugee welfare centres in Vaharai in October. Mr. Elilan gave the ICRC representative the coordinates of these centres and requested that they be treated as safe havens.

The army has accused the LTTE of forcibly detaining the refugees and civilian population in the areas under its control and using them as "human shields". The army has said some of the deaths of civilians in the camps were a consequence of LTTE actions from these locations.

Separately, the military said an LTTE pistol gang member assassinated three civilians at Chenkaladi in Batticaloa in the morning.

In another development, Norwegian University of Life Sciences has appealed to the Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa to take urgent action to find the whereabouts of the vice-chancellor of the Eastern University, S. Raveendranath. The vice-chancellor had shifted to the national capital after threats to his life. He went missing in Colombo last Friday.

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