Twelve Sinhalese workers shot dead in restive East

Colombo, May 30 (UNI) At least 12 Sinhalese construction workers, employed to build an irrigation tank, have been shot dead by suspected Tamil Tigers in the Eastern Sri Lanka, military sources here said.

''A total of 14 construction workers from the majority community were taken away by suspected LTTE cadres and shot at yesterday.

Twelve of them have been found killed on the spot while two escaped with gunshot injuries and reported to the nearby police this morning,'' Military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said.

He said a special police team has been rushed to the scene to probe the massacre.

Meanwhile, the LTTE has denied involvement in the massacre and charged that the forces seeking to discredit rebels were behind the civilian killing.

''The forces, seeking to marginalise the Tigers after the EU ban, have ''designed and executed the killings in the border village,'' the pro-LTTE website has reported quoting an LTTE spokesman as saying.

The killing has taken place at a time when the European Union included the LTTE on its list of terrorist groups after much deliberation.

Although there was no immediate reaction from the LTTE, the Government in a statement ''appreciated'' the continued and constructive engagement of the EU to bring the LTTE into the democratic mainstream and expressed the hope that the European Union ban on the Tamil Tiger rebels would push the rebel outfit to think afresh and resume peace talks.

UNI XC SB BD1737