SRI LANKA: Displaced villagers return to homes shelled during fighting between Tamil rebels and army in the north

Hundreds of displaced villagers ventured back to northeast Sri Lanka on Sunday (August 27) to inspect homes shelled during fighting between Tamil rebels and the army. Around 30,000 people fled the region three weeks ago during a new episode in Sri Lanka's two-decade civil war. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels pushed into the small village of Palai Nagar a few miles from rebel lines earlier in August. Shells and mortar bombs destroyed the roof of the local mosque, toppled tombstones in the cemetery opposite and left many houses unusable. Sporadic shelling continues, so newly displaced residents living in camps in east Sri Lanka pay brief visits each day to their homes to salvage what they can. "When the fighting started we had nothing to eat for four days. Then the army told us to leave the village. They took us in a jeep and put us in a refugee camp," 60 year old local resident Rimaz Mohideen said. Aid workers estimate around 200,000 people have been displaced in the north and east by the past month of fighting, tens of thousands of them in and around Mutur. People are gradually going back, but many are still forced to live in makeshift camps. There were around 450 families living in the Muslim village of Palai Nagar before the fighting. Now only around 50 remain in nearby camp. The rest are still living in shelters miles away, deep inside government territory. "In Palai Nagar there are 475 houses where 495 families live. (There is complete) damage to 226 houses. 212 houses are 50 percent damaged," said villager Mohhamed Riaz. Aid officials in the region say that the displaced people return to their homes each day to check on their condition and salvage what they can. Many houses are still standing but need major repair work undertaken. In the nearby town of Mutur, local muslim leaders say 30 of their community are still missing, but have not yet been able to prove rumours of a massacre because thousands of Muslims fled the fighting earlier this month. Musamil Rajith a 23 year old grocer and his family were forced to flee through paddy fields and jungle after the nearby school they were sheltering in was hit by artillery, killing 15. "The LTTE started firing from there around nine at night. We took refugee in a school. The army was firing multi barrel rockets at the LTTE. A shell fell into the school and killed 15 people. I don't know who fired it," he said. The army warned them not to use the main road saying it had been mined, and as they sought to flee, the Tigers intercepted them and separated the stronger men and boys. Rajith said that the rebels caught a Muslim boy who was a butcher and executed him in front of him. In the outskirts of Palai Nagar, a Red Cross signpost pasted with a sticker that reads: "No Weapons" is peppered with bullet holes. A cow grazes in the empty courtyard. Severed telephone cables dangle onto the street, as troops ride by in armoured personnel carriers and on motorbikes. Checkpoints have sprung up every few hundred meters. With the government claiming that rebel presence is just a few kilometres away from the village of Sampur a threat could be posed to a key naval base in the area. Some analysts believe that there could be a major offensive by the government to capture this area. If that happens the hardship faced by tens of thousands of people of Mutur has only just begun.

ITN Source | August 28, 2006

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