Thousands flee Sri Lanka fighting to temples, schools
Source: Reuters
KANTALE, Sri Lanka, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Nearly 3,000 people took shelter in schools and Buddhist temples after fleeing rebel artillery fire in northeast Sri Lanka, officials said on Sunday, as a second day of fierce fighting killed and wounded dozens. The military said 12 soldiers were killed by Tamil Tiger rebel artillery shells in the eastern district of Batticaloa and about 40 others were wounded. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said 10 civilians were killed by army artillery shells, on top of 15 they said were killed on Saturday, and accused the military of mounting an offensive on their eastern territory for a second day. It was not possible to get independent confirmation of what happened behind rebel lines. Several hundred civilians arrived in the government held town of Kantale southwest of the strategic harbour of Trincomalee in the far northeast on Saturday, and nearly 2,000 more joined them on Sunday, officials said. "They (the Tigers) attacked civilian villages, so these people came to Kantale and we are looking after them," said Trincomalee Government Agent Ranith de Silva, the district's most senior civil servant. "They are in Buddhist temples and schools," he added. "We are feeding them. We are up to 2,800 people now." Kantale's Base Hospital admitted 41 people on Saturday, most of them soldiers, with artillery and mortar bomb shrapnel wounds. Children were among the injured. "I was playing with friends under a cashew tree when the shell fell nearby. I was the only one injured. My friends are okay," said 12-year-old R.D. Shantha after his leg was treated for a shrapnel wound. Further southeast in the rebel-held town of Vakarai, where an estimated 30,000 displaced are living in camps and foreign aid workers have no access, the Tigers' humanitarian wing the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) said 17 people had been killed in camps they run. "Six of our IDP camps have been shelled over the past 24 hours," said TRO project manager Arjunan Ethirveerasingam. "No fire emanated from these camps." "We want the government to allow the ICRC Red Cross and SLMM (Nordic truce monitors) to maintain an overnight presence in the area so they can witness for themselves," he added. The latest fighting comes after President Mahinda Rajapakse this week introduced new anti-terrorism laws in a crackdown on the Tigers and their supporters after a failed suicide attack on his brother Gotabhaya, who is his Defence Secretary. The rebels say the measures will only deepen a new chapter in the island's two-decade-old civil war. Rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran last week declared the Tigers were resuming their independence struggle. Analysts say this means the island's conflict, in which more than 67,000 people have been killed since 1983, will likely escalate. More than 3,000 civilians, troops and rebel fighters have been killed so far this year alone amid a rash of air strikes, suicide attacks and major artillery battles.
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