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Saturday, Mar 10, 2007
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International

Major LTTE bases captured

B. Muralidhar Reddy

Civilians fleeing indiscriminate shelling by the military, say Tigers

COLOMBO: The military on Friday claimed to have captured four "major" bases of the Tamil Tigers north of Trincomalee even as the LTTE complained of displacement of 70,000 civilians in areas under its control in the Batticaloa district due to intense and indiscriminate shelling by the military.

A Defence Ministry statement said the Tiger cadres at Peraru jungles in the north of Trincomalee fled after the army launched a 48-hour humanitarian operation which ended successfully.

It said they had four major bases around 30 km north of Trincomalee town and were posing a major threat to the passengers on Anuradhapura-Trincomalee road and Trincomalee-Pulmudai road and civilians.

The Ministry said over 150 cadres had been holding these bases and the search operations suggested that either many Tigers were killed or evacuated after being severely injured.

"The Army troops have started consolidating in the captured areas and have recovered a large number of warlike items and equipments left by the Tigers on the run. The troops are on the pursuit of the desperate cadres."

The LTTE said intense artillery fire from the Webber stadium military camp resulted in fainting of students of the nearby Vincent Girls School.

The Tigers said people had been forced to flee due to artillery fire.

"Human misery"

"Two civilians have already been killed by the shelling and a child was injured. Fearful of the human misery caused by the Sri Lankan military shelling in Vaharai, people in Batticaloa are displaced on large scale."

As per a statement of the Tigers the entire population of 20,000 people in the Paddippalai Divisional Secretariat, 20,000 people from the Eravur Divisional Secretariat, 15,000 people from the Vavunathivu Divisional Secretariat and more than 15,000 people from the Kiran Divisional Secretariat has displaced. People in the Vellaveli Divisional Secretariat are also displacing.

U.S. Principle Deputy Assistant Secretary Steve Mann said it was time the mainstream parties in the south forged consensus on power sharing.

On a visit for an assessment of the situation, Mr. Mann said he raised the humanitarian situation with President Mahinda Rajapaksa .

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