Refugees Facing Bleak Future As Tigers Hit Back

Telegraph

May 1, 2006

By Rahul Bedi in Sampur

Fresh fighting erupted between Tamil Tiger rebels and government forces yesterday as refugees feared that all-out war in Sri Lanka could prevent them from returning home.

Rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fired artillery at two army positions in the eastern Trincomalee district and the soldiers retaliated, Brig Prasad Samarasinghe, a military spokesman, said. No casualties were reported.

Tamil Tiger rebels have used the ceasefire to re-group and re-arm
Rebels earlier overran three camps operated by a breakaway faction in the village of Welikanda, in the eastern district of Batticaloa, killing 15 people, Pakkiyaraja Thayamohan, the LTTE's political head in Batticaloa, said.

The clashes increased fears that the country was rapidly returning to civil war after four years of fragile peace. Diplomats strove to bring the opposing sides back to the negotiating table.

More than 200 soldiers, rebels and civilians have been killed in low-level fighting since November.

Since last Tuesday, when a suicide attack wounded the top army commander and killed 11 other people in the capital Colombo, relations between the government and the LTTE have sharply deteriorated and the country has descended into the worst violence since 2002.

Up to 40,000 civilians have had to flee their homes. In Sampur, in the north-east, some survivors of last week's military bombings on rebel-held territory wandered listlessly around makeshift camps, uncertain about the future.

In debilitating heat, many more of the 15,000 refugees, mostly women and children from the bombed fishing village of Sampur, 180 miles north-east of Colombo, lay under trees or bullock carts.

Stragglers from adjoining villages continued to swell their number, fearing the resumption of government shelling.

"We expect further retaliation from the Sri Lankan military," said Indrani, 28, a mother of four who fled Sampur on Tuesday immediately after the first bombing raids and artillery fire in which 12 people were killed.

Krishna Pillay, 38, a farmer, said that shells shattered the school and flattened 15 houses. Fresh-faced Tamil Tiger rebels in fatigues and armed with assault rifles almost larger than themselves patrolled the eerily quiet streets.

Sampur is one of many territories across northern and eastern Sri Lanka controlled by the LTTE.

The rebels run schools, collect taxes, dispense justice and even run a bank. Although the government has no influence in these regions, it continues to provide the people with money and food.

"We all want to live in peace but the government is not serious about making it happen," said T Suthershan, a 22-year-old rebel limping from bullet wounds.

Nearly 70,000 people have died in the civil war that erupted in 1983 after Tamils, who make up 12 per cent of the island's 19 million population, took up arms against the majority Sinhala community, demanding equal rights.

"We will retaliate," the LTTE's district political chief, S Elilan, said as he sat, ringed by young rebels, under a photograph of his leader, Vellupillai Prabhakaran.

Rohita Bogollagama, the minister for investment and one of four government peace negotiators in Geneva, said: "A healing period is necessary for both sides in this conflict after the latest round of violence."

The LTTE is acknowledged as one of the world's most ruthless guerrilla groups and has successfully taken on the Sri Lankan and Indian armies.

The government estimates that it has between 8,000 and 10,000 fighters. Intelligence officials say it has made use of the four-year ceasefire to re-group, re-arm and re-deploy in preparation for renewed fighting.