mandag 3. november 2008

SL: TAMIL CIVILIANS FEAR GOVT AREA TO MOVE!!!

Civilians fear seeking safety in cleared areas - Rights Group

Despite the harassment faced at the hands of the LTTE, civilians trapped in the Wanni are afraid to seek protection in government controlled areas owing to reports of killings, abductions and other forms of harassment, a leading human rights group said yesterday.
Mr. Rajan Hoole from the University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR) said that killings and abductions of civilians by the security forces and armed allies in the East, Jaffna and Vavuniya have been well documented.

"The civilians have not been offered a human choice. Yes, the civilians do not want their children conscripted, and the LTTE has prevented them from leaving. At the same time they are also anxious about their future under the Government. The conditions, under which they would be held in Vavuniya, should they flee the LTTE, are terrible. LTTE propaganda did not have to lie to them about killings, including of young women, and abductions in Vavuniya," Mr. Hoole told Daily Mirror by e-mail.

He further noted that the ground situation in the Wanni reflects the fact that civilians as well as unwilling troops from both sides are dying and being maimed for a war that should not have been fought in this way in the first place.

"While the LTTE is a problem for the Tamil people as well as the State, the primary problem is to do with the denial of political rights to the minorities. Without settling that, the war has become in effect a war against the Tamil people, involving total displacement and dislocation of their lives," he said.

The award winning human rights activist who had faced threats from both sides of the war and is now in hiding overseas said it is clear now that the conflict will continue, as a war of 'attrition', condemning the civilians to a long period of ruin, to constant danger from the Government's fire power in LTTE-controlled areas and confinement, harassment and worse if they change hands. (ER)dailymirror.lk

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