Civilians displaced and dying in shadow war

Death hangs over the deserted town of Muttur in eastern Sri Lanka and the stench of decomposing bodies is overpowering. Most of its 50,000+ inhabitants have fled. No one is left to bury the dead. All visible activity is on the road leading to Kantale town, 25 miles away. Taking advantage of a lull in the fighting, civilians are rushing up and down the road in an assortment of vehicles trying to retrieve belongings from their homes, hastily abandoned as Tamil separatist rebels and the Sri Lankan army fought to control Muslim-dominated Muttur in almost two weeks of fighting. While the army has been in control of the town since Aug. 5, officers warn visiting journalists and others that the area is operationally alive. The whine and crash of artillery, peppering positions held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), adds emphasis to the warnings. On Aug. 10, fighting erupted again at the Mawilaru sluice gates that lie south of Muttur. The sluice, that irrigates 30,000 acres of paddy land cultivated mostly by Sinhalese farmers, has been at the heart of the present conflict that mocks the February 2002 ceasefire between the LTTE and the government. When the Sri Lankan army launched an all out attack, supported by the air force, to gain control over the sluice gates, the Tigers countered by attacking Muttur, lying 155 miles east of the capital city of Colombo and overlooking the strategic Trincomalee harbor. Civilian areas in Muttur, where the Tigers fought pitched battles with the army, now lie in shambles. Shells pierced the buildings of the Al-Hiriya school and a mosque nearby has had its roof blown off. The town's main hospital too has been hit. The few civilians who chose to stay on appear shell-shocked. "We don't know what happened here, we don't know who came and who left. All we know is that both sides were fighting inside the town, and people had to flee. We are all scared," 46-year-old P. V. Karunapala who stayed put in the town through the siege, told IPS. Aid and relief have been slow reaching the town and Karunapala was chewing on raw coconut for breakfast. Confirmed figures of the battle damage would probably never be known but both the army and the Tigers claim to have killed hundreds of opposing fighters. The civilian toll could easily run into hundreds, going by the extent of the destruction. What is known for sure is that 17 Tamil civilians who worked for the French aid agency Action Against Hunger (ACF) were executed with bullets to their heads, within the premises of the agency. No one can say who was behind the massacre but suspicion has fallen on both the LTTE and the Sri Lankan army, as well as a paramilitary group led by renegade LTTE leader, Col. Karuna, who is known to have the support of the government. The United Nations has called for an independent investigation into the massacre. "The government is taking the investigation very seriously," Benoit Miribel, ACF director general, said in Colombo on Aug. 11. By the middle of last week, the Muslim Information Center at Kantale had registered 41,055 refugees. "All these displaced people are now in 31 camps in Kantale. No government organization has arrived to provide proper assistance to these people so far," Mujeeb Rahaman at the center told IPS. The displaced have sought shelter wherever they can find it. And in Kantale a massive humanitarian crisis is building up as the military offensive in the area continues. Refugees have been forced to set up camp along the roads, at government premises and even in a decommissioned cinema. Overcrowding and sanitation are a concern with thousands using the canals and fields as public latrines. Operating from a base in Trincomalee, teams of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have been sending in relief material, including plastic sheeting, cooking sets, hygiene kits and non-food items that is being distributed through Muslim Aid and other international non-government organizations. "There are about 6,000 people left in Muttur and they need food and assistance," said Mohammed Saleem, who works for Muslim Aid. But the killings of the ACF workers and continued fighting have restricted movement by aid workers. The Tigers said that more than 30,000 displaced were inside areas under their control in Kathiraveli, south of Muttur and that they had no access to food supplies, medicine or aid. Around 200 people had walked the 25 miles to arrive in Batticaloa. The government had initially restricted movement of aid workers into the area but minister for disaster management Mahinda Samarasinghe said that the International Committee for the Red Cross was being allowed entry into Tiger areas. Hostilities between the military and the Tigers are unlikely to ease any time soon. The army has inducted additional troops and fire power into the area and said that the Tigers too were bringing in additional cadres and weapons. Fighting had broken out between the two sides in northern Jaffna and in the Trincomalee Bay over the weekend worsening the situation. Despite the ferocity of the fighting, both the LTTE and the government have insisted that the 2002 ceasefire is holding. More than a 1,000 people have died in violence over the last eight months adding to the 65,000 that have died in two decades of ethnic warfare between Tamils and the Sinhalese majority on the island. Muslims form the second biggest minority group, after the Tamils. An estimated 7.5 percent of Sri Lanka's population of 20 million people is Muslim and has been the worst affected in the current flare-up in eastern Sri Lanka. The plight of the displaced in Kantale and Muttur appears bleak. "Many of our houses are damaged and we don't know who to blame, the government or the LTTE. We are caught in the middle and are suffering. We can hide from the [small arms] fire but it is difficult to escape the shelling," said Najmudeen Nafaideen, a refugee from Muttur.