01-15-2006, 07:52 PM
More Sri Lanka Tamils flee to India fearing war
CHENNAI, India (Reuters) - A new group of Sri Lankan Tamils has landed on the Indian coast claiming they are fleeing war in the island nation, police said on Sunday.
The group of 10 arrived by boat near the famous pilgrim town of Rameswaram, about 550 kms south of Chennai, capital of southern Tamil Nadu state, late on Saturday evening.
They said they were fleeing escalated violence between the government forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in northeast Lanka, police said.
Another boat carrying five people came early on Saturday after the first wave in which 33 Tamils came in two batches on Thursday and Friday.
Almost all the refugees are from Sri Lanka's Mannar coastal villages, police said.
"They say more than 3,000 more are waiting in Mannar to cross into Tamil Nadu in view of the violence," said V. Subramanian, a senior police officer at Rameswaram.
Sri Lanka is in the grip of the fear of a return to a war that killed more than 64,000 people before a truce in 2002.
Deadly attacks have taken place in recent weeks with suspected Tigers killing nine sailors in a mine ambush in the north on Thursday. Similar ambushes killed 39 military personnel in December - many in Mannar.
http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArtic...&archived=False
CHENNAI, India (Reuters) - A new group of Sri Lankan Tamils has landed on the Indian coast claiming they are fleeing war in the island nation, police said on Sunday.
The group of 10 arrived by boat near the famous pilgrim town of Rameswaram, about 550 kms south of Chennai, capital of southern Tamil Nadu state, late on Saturday evening.
They said they were fleeing escalated violence between the government forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in northeast Lanka, police said.
Another boat carrying five people came early on Saturday after the first wave in which 33 Tamils came in two batches on Thursday and Friday.
Almost all the refugees are from Sri Lanka's Mannar coastal villages, police said.
"They say more than 3,000 more are waiting in Mannar to cross into Tamil Nadu in view of the violence," said V. Subramanian, a senior police officer at Rameswaram.
Sri Lanka is in the grip of the fear of a return to a war that killed more than 64,000 people before a truce in 2002.
Deadly attacks have taken place in recent weeks with suspected Tigers killing nine sailors in a mine ambush in the north on Thursday. Similar ambushes killed 39 military personnel in December - many in Mannar.
http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArtic...&archived=False
<img src='http://img35.echo.cx/img35/2821/3dtext82282uu.gif' border='0' alt='user posted image'>