Sri Lanka faced with serious problem of displaced from eastern Muslim town

The Sri Lankan government was Sunday looking for ways to ease the congestion in the town of Kantalai by moving some to the neighboring towns or even to convince them to return to their base in Muttur, the scene of fighting with the Tamil Tigers.

A senior official in the President Mahinda Rajapakse's office said that several government ministers have visited Kantalai, 218 km from Colombo.

"They will look to provide transport facilities for people to either return to Muttur or even to go and live with relatives elsewhere in the district of Trincomalee," he said.

"We have a serious problem in providing latrine facilities in makeshift relief camps which is a bigger problem than other things as food or water," a relief official here said.

Around 15,000 refugees displaced due to fighting between the Tamil Tigers and the government troops were gathered in Kantalai on Saturday.

The refugees fled from Muttur, a Muslim dominated town south of the eastern port city of Trincomalee on Friday as fighting between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels and the government troops intensified.

Fearing more fighting and grabbing whatever they can they made the 80 km journey on Friday to the Sinhala majority town of Kantalai.

However by Saturday evening the government said the town had been completely taken under the troops control.

The International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) officials said that Kantalai would not be able to bear such an influx of refugees and there was a need to ease the congestion by moving as many as possible to Trincomalee.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights said the government would offer to bring back to Muttur those displaced as the security situation ther had improved.

Berty Premalal Dissanayake the Chief Minister of the North Central Province who is co-ordinating the relief effort said buses were provided to the refugees to go and live with their relatives elsewhere in the Trincomalee district.

At least 200 people have been killed in Muttur due to the fighting in the Muslim dominated town. Rebels launched attacks and appeared to be controlling at least parts of the town on Thursday and Friday.

The attack on Muttur came a day after the LTTE attacked a Sri Lankan troop carrier vessel in the port of Trincomalee and in the backdrop of the Army's advance into the rebel held Verugal Aru area in the eastern province since last Sunday.

The first open Army advance into rebel held territory since the February 2002 ceasefire was aimed at opening up an irrigation sluice gate shut down by the rebels since July 20.

The latest clashes between the two sides are the worst since the Norwegian backed peace process got underway. More than 64,000 people were killed in the armed separatist conflict since the mid 1980s until February 2002.

Source: Xinhua