- Title: SRI LANKA: Sixty one dead after bus attack in Kabithigollewa
- Date: 15th June 2006
- Summary: EXTERIOR OF THE UNHCR OFFICE
- Embargoed: 30th June 2006 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Sri Lanka
- Country: Sri Lanka
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,War / Fighting
- Reuters ID: LVA5DXNGL7RVK4YOVP27QB2VSHIX
- Story Text: Sri Lanka's military bombed Tamil Tiger rebels on Thursday (June 15) in retaliation for an attack on a civilian bus that killed 64 people, the bloodiest violence in the island nation since a 2002 ceasefire.
The government said the rebels detonated two claymore mines placed side by side, spraying the packed bus with ball bearings on an isolated road near rebel-held territory. Shortly after, air and artillery strikes on the rebel-held northeast coast began.
At the hospital in Anuradhapura, people mourned the loss of entire families in the bus blast.
A Reuters Television cameraman said the road beside the overturned bus was covered with glass and blood. In the hospital, he saw torn and burned corpses, including many women and children. Officials said 13 children were among the dead.
In the early evening, the military raids shifted to the town of Kilinochchi, the headquarters of the Tigers. Reuters correspondent Simon Gardner said the ground shook and jet aircraft could be heard overhead, while the Tigers warned once again of a new civil war.
Visiting victims of the bus attack in the nearby government-held town of Anuradhapura, President Mahinda Rajapakse said he remained committed to peace. But diplomats say the situation is getting out of control while international monitors say both sides must stop the violence.
The Tigers denied involvement in the attack, but diplomats and analysts say they are by far the most likely perpetrators. The rebels have denied earlier similar attacks on the military, but few believe them.
"These terrorists that were involved in this act, were well aware that these were innocent civilians, and they chose the barbaric, the brutal major terrorism. And this definitely carries the message and the hallmark of LTTE activists. There is no doubt about this, "government spokesman Kehilya Rambukwella said.
Most on the bus were from the island's majority Sinhalese community. The government said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) wanted to provoke an ethnic backlash against minority Tamils to support their demands for a separate Tamil homeland.
"We were and we are pursuing a political settlement and we are looking to pursue the peace discussions, but when these kinds of events takes place, it needs a re-look at, which we are in the process of doing so," government spokesman Kehilya Rambukwella told a news conference.
Many fear the peace process is reaching its endgame. The Tigers pulled out of peace talks in April but had agreed to talks last week in Oslo to discuss the safety of ceasefire monitors. But on arrival, they refused to meet Sri Lankan officials.
Mediator Norway last week wrote to both sides asking them to re-commit themselves to the truce. The government replied and said it was committed, but the Tigers have yet to respond. But diplomats say neither the government nor the Tigers have shown sufficient flexibility and fear that if violence continues the country will gradually fall back into a war that has already killed more than 64,000 people.
On the island's northwestern tip, over two hundred people caught in the growing conflict in Sri Lanka have sought refuge in a school-turned-camp in the town of Talaimannar.
Mudaraweeran Kantharajah is one such caught up in the crossfire. He was stopped by the Sri Lankan Navy seeking to escape the island and heading for India.
Denouncing the majority ethnic Sinhalese army of harassment, and afraid the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) might recruit one of his four sons, Kantharajah handed over 650 U.S. dollars for a passage aboard a small fishing dinghy -- months' worth of wages. He now faces the future with just 60 U.S. dollars to his name.
"We are the people who are caught between the army and the LTTE. There is so much violence going on, I am filled with fear and frustration. Again we have to start our lives, I still want to go to India. But what to do?"" he said, sitting in an empty classroom surrounded by his family and a few worn plastic bags containing clothes and his son's cricket medals.
United Nations refugee arm UNHCR says more than 2,800 people have fled from Sri Lanka to India so far this year mostly from the north-western district of Mannar, many of whom are now housed in basic camps in Tamil Nadu.
"There are various dangers to IDPs who leave Mannar Island and heading towards India specially in the seas. They travel in very small boats and conditions of late have been very bad. There is always the danger of drowning. I think you would have heard that in the recent past there have been about ten people who have drowned," said Ravindran Velusami a field officer for the UNHCR in Mannar.
Crossing attempts were spiked after a deadly bomb blast in April in a market place in the restive eastern district of Trincomalee, where the vast majority of those fleeing are from.
But like much of the north and east, Mannar was badly shelled during the late 1980s and is also in the grip of sporadic violence.
Officials fear a repeat of the mass exodus of the 1990s, when tens of thousands fled to India. Some are still there.
Armoured personnel carriers patrol the main road to the town, which sits on an islet that stretches towards Sri Lanka's giant neighbour. The army is building new bunkers and many residents worry a return to a war that killed more than 64,000 people before a 2002 truce is just around the corner.
The government accuses the Tigers of using scare tactics to force people to flee as a propaganda tool in their push for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils in the north and east.
The rebels say people are fleeing abuses at the hands of the military and that they actively discourage people smuggling.
With more than 600 people killed so far this year -- over half of them civilians -- in a rash of ambushes, shootings, military clashes and extra judicial killings, those fleeing blame both sides. And they vow to keep trying.
"Even if I get caught five times, I will definitely leave for India. We have to go even if we lose our lives," said fisherman Govindar Ramkumar, clutching a photograph of his 14-year-old daughter, who was among 8 relatives who drowned when their boat capsized during the 18 mile (29 km), two-hour crossing in May -- the only fatalities reported so far.
The 43-year-old, fled to India in the 1990s before returning to Sri Lanka during a lull in fighting, squatted in a traditional sarong as his young son looked on.
Many Tamil parents like him also see brighter education and employment prospects for their children in India.
There is no apparent bad blood between those caught and Navy sailors, who say they pity their pathetic plight. Many failed refugees shake their hands in thanks at the treatment they have received.
Those caught are housed overnight in a church at a naval base and fed, before being taken past coils of razor wire and green sandbag sentry posts to a bus and entrusted to a local Catholic priest.
Reverend C.A. Dalima knows many of those he takes back to his camp in the grounds of his church and a neighbouring school in the village of Talaimannar will again try to cross to India.
After doing the rounds and locking up at night, he only knows how many have fled by counting the number of uneaten parcels of rice and curry left over the next morning.
The smugglers themselves are earning a small fortune. Charging around 1,500 U.S. dollars (USD) for 15 passengers in advance, they can buy an old boat, an old engine and be left with a 1,000 USD profit before they even embark. If caught, they face a 50 USD fine and 14 days in jail.
"It is on the grounds of humanity and suffering that they are going through that we are willing to take them to their destination, It's definitely profitable too. I have debts to pay and a family to feed," I earn in one trip what I earn in a month fishing," said one smuggler, giving the false name Chandran to avoid reprisals from the military or the Tigers. JRC/np - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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