29 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees reach Dhanushkodi

(November 16, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) The on-going war between the Sri Lankan army and LTTE has led to large influx of Tamil refugees to Tamilnadu over the last few months.

And also, political parties in the State have requested the Centre to take up the Lankan issue with the UN which would bring about an end at the earliest.

A batch of 29 Tamil refugees arrived at Dhanushkodi near Rameswaram on Saturday. The refugees said they had paid Rs 15,000 per head to be ferried to India.

Officials said the influx of refugees proved that the fighting in the Island's north had intensified.

The refugees said there was no drinking water or milk powder for children and they had a difficult time. They alleged that a NGO which was offering food to the Lankan refugees at the refugee camps here had stopped providing food and they were starving.

They urged the State government to arrange for food and water for them and monitor activities of NGOs which claimed that they were providing food to the refugees but 'were not.' NGO officials said they were doing their best for the refugees.

Coast Guard sources said they had intensified patrolling to prevent infiltration of militants following the war in the island. 'C-38', a new coastguard ship, had been deployed in the south Sea for security duty.

Patrolling had been intensified to prevent fishermen from crossing the international maritime border. The hovercraft, patrolling the Palk bay,had been shifted to Gulf of Mannar last month, the sources said.

Meanwhile, three Indian fishermen were arrested on Saturday for illegally ferrying Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka to Anitheertham near here on 8 November, police said.

As the war has intennsified, the Sri Lankan troops on Saturday made a major breakthrough by capturing the strategic northern town of
Pooneryn, to open after 20 years the land-link to Tamil heartland of Jaffna and a buoyant President Mahinda Rajapaksa asked the LTTE to surrender and come for talks.

Government troops entered the main town after pitched battles with the Tiger rebels lasting over weeks, thus ending the LTTE domination of the town for nearly two decades and the triumph was announced by Rajapaksa in a televised address.

Along with the capture of the town, which was the hub of sea Tigers' activities, the Sri Lankan Forces also cleared the main A-32 coastal highway leading to the Jaffna lagoon, which forms the coastal land-link to Jaffna.

The Air Force deployed helicopter gunships to pound suspected tiger defences around Jaffna in support of the infantry push.

The fall of Pooneryn will enable the Sri Lankan forces to reinforce their troops in Jaffna by land. So far, government troops were being supplied through air and sea.

Meanwhile, seeking an end to the war, the PMK, a constituent of the ruling UPA at the Centre on Saturday said the Union government should
take up the Sri Lankan army's current offensive in the island's north with the UN security council.

'India has the right and is duty-bound to take up the matter with UN security council as a neighbouring country. This is a minimum intervention,' PMK founder S Ramadoss said in a statement here.

He said though India, prima facie, has a case to intervene militarily in Sri Lanka, he was not demanding that. At least, India could take up the matter with the UN security council, he said.

The UN had created the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, whose charter clearly stated that it was the international community's responsibility to stop 'racial onslaught', he said.

He welcomed Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's remarks that the Centre should consider alternate ways to stop the current offensive if the Sri Lankan government did not stop it.

BJP's Tamilnadu unit president H Rajah told reporters in Tiruchi that the Indian Government should take up the Lankan issue with the UN or International Human Rights organisations and put pressure on the Island Government to stop the army offensive in the North.

He said the erstwhile Vajpayee government had deputed Jaswant Singh to Sri Lanka in 2002. Sri Lanka will listen to India, a power and friendly neighbour, if things were taken up through the appropriate channels, he said. - Sri Lanka Guardian