Valachchenai (Sri Lanka): Thousands of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees fled their camp in Tamil Tiger rebel territory in the island's east on Thursday, survivors said, a day after Army artillery pounded it and killed dozens of civilians.
Rights groups and diplomats voiced outrage at Wednesday's attack, which the military said was in retaliation for rebel artillery fire, while doctors tended infants and elderly patients among at least 125 civilians with multiple shrapnel wounds.
Many fear a new chapter in a two-decade war with Tamil Tiger rebels will escalate after peace talks collapsed in late October.
Housewife Palachchenai Kadiraveli, 29, managed to clamber aboard a fishing boat with her daughter and 20 others before dawn on Thursday, running a gauntlet across a lagoon patrolled by navy fast attack boats to government-held territory.
"There were a lot of explosions, so many people dead and wounded," she said after landing near the town of Valachchenai in government territory in the eastern district of Batticaloa.
"A lot of children died. I jumped into a bunker with my daughter," she said, clutching two bags containing clothes and a bottle of soda.
"My husband stayed behind to protect our belongings. There are thousands of people trying to leave,” she added.
Nordic truce monitors said they had received reports that thousands of people were on the move in the rebel-held area - where around 35,000 people were camped out after being displaced by fighting, which flared further north in August.
Doctors at Valachchenai's basic hospital struggled to cope with 60 injured early on Thursday, so the patients were moved to the major town of Batticaloa.
The Tigers say at least 45 people were killed in Wednesday's attack on the camp, set up in a school in the rebel-held village of Kathiraveli, while Nordic truce monitors had counted 23 corpses by late Wednesday.
"Our monitors saw there were no military installations in the camp area, so we would certainly like some answers from the military regarding the nature and reasons of this attack," said Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission spokeswoman Helen Olafsdottir.
The attack came after days of artillery duels between the military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the island's north and east, where the rebels want to carve out a separate homeland for minority Tamils.
The military were unapologetic for the shelling, accusing the Tigers of hiding behind civilians.
"They are using the civilians as human shields and are not allowing them to come to government areas," said military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe.
The incident came just days after the government vowed to probe killings, abductions and massacres blamed on both sides since August 2005.
"It is appalling that the military should attack a camp for displaced people - these are civilians who have already been forced from their homes because of the conflict," Purna Sen, Asia Pacific Director for Amnesty International, said in a statement.
"Killing and injuring civilians can never be justified. The government must investigate this terrible attack as a matter of urgency. It must ensure that those responsible are brought to justice to signal to the rest of the military that attacking civilians will not be tolerated,” Sen added.
Many fear the worst violence since a now-battered 2002 ceasefire could escalate into a return to a war that has killed well over 65,000 people since 1983.
Comments
0 comment