Over 20,000 people flee Vakarai fighting in lanka

Colombo, Dec 21 (UNI) Over 20,000 Tamil civilians have fled the LTTE-held Vakarai areas and entered the government-held areas in restive Eastern Batticaloa district during the past two weeks due to exchange of shelling between the security forces and the rebels, and fear of further escalation of violence.

Minister of Disaster Relief Services Amir Ali in an exclusive interview told UNI that at least 20,000 civilians have fled the LTTE-held areas through thick jungles of Rithithenna areas.

''The fleeing civilians are entering the government-held areas of Batticaloa and Valaichchenai by walking 12 to 15 km through these thick jungles. They are now being housed in 31 government schools and welfare centres,'' Mr Ali said.

He said his ministry in co-ordination with the Ministry of Nation Building were assisting these internally displaced civilians by providing them immediate food, temporary accommodations and other related facilities.

According to the Minister, the government has already identified eight key places like Chenkallady, Kiran and Valaichchenai to put up temporary shelters in order to relocate them as the schools had to be vacated for academic purposes by early January, next year.

''We have initially allocated Rs 25 lakh for this purpose,'' he said.

Meanwhile, a top defence source said there are about 12,000 to 15,000 people still living in the LTTE-held areas with majority of them moving to the government-held territories during past two weeks.

Claiming that there were only about 700 fighting cadres remaining in the Vakarai and Verugal areas, the top official said the military would be able to flush the LTTE out of these areas and push them deeper into the jungles in the near future to ensure the safety of the civilians.

''The security forces are duty-bound to ensure the safety and security of the civilian population,'' he said, adding that the security forces have already captured two rebel forward defence lines closer to the Panichankerni areas.

UNI XC SI KN1447