Nearly 14,000 Sri Lankan civilians flee to gov't controlled areas

Nearly 14,000 civilians have fled from the Tamil Tiger rebel held area in the country's restive Eastern Province since the beginning of November due to the fighting between the rebels and the government troops, state officials said Sunday.

Batticaloa's chief government administrator C. Punyamurthi said that some 13,910 people from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held Vakarai and other areas in the east had arrived in the government controlled territory.

According to Punyamurthi, more than 3,400 of them had arrived in the eastern Batticaloa district's Eravur area on Saturday.

Heavy mortar and artillery fire are continuing to be exchanged between the LTTE and the government troops since Dec. 7 with rebels accusing the government troops of breaching the forward defense lines and venturing into their territory.

The troops said that they have attacked the rebel artillery and gun fire positions in Vakarai and accuse the LTTE of using humans as shields to fire at the military.

Both sides have come under increasing condemnation from the international community for causing civilian deaths in the conflict.

Officials said most of the refugees who are arriving in the government controlled territory use the main roads as several of them had died when two boats capsized in the seas on the way of fleeing.

Vakarai is the main location for the LTTE rebels since they lost their main administration seat of Sampur in the east to the government troops early September.

The Army Commander Sarath Fonseka last week said the troops were determined to flush out the rebels from the entirety of the east in order to ensure law and order for the civilians.

Over 64,000 people were killed between the mid-1980s and the year 2002 when the government and rebels entered the ongoing Norwegian backed truce.

Source: Xinhua