Tigers fired from near Vakarai civilian camp - survivors tell Reuters
[Friday, November 10, 2006 - 12.15 GMT]

Confirmation that the LTTE had deliberately endangered the lives of civilians by directing long range artillery fire from near them comes from the latest report on the situation in the country filed by Reuters today
(Nov. 10, 06) and other accounts of the incident at Vakarai by survivors.

In a roundup of the Sri Lankan situation, the Reuter report by Simon Gardner in Colombo refers to the loss of civilian life last Wednesday at Vakarai. It quotes Tamil civilian refugees who state that Tigers has fired first from near their camp, after which the shells from the Security Forces had come.

To quote from the news roundup under the sub-heading "Refugees caught in middle":  "On Friday, survivors who have since fled to a shelter in government territory in the east told Reuters the Tigers had fired first from near their camp in the rebel area. Soon after, government shells and rockets had rained on them."

"First I heard big guns fired from the camp area," said one 27-year-old Tamil woman, asking not to be named. "I jumped into a bunker. Then the army returned fire and I heard a big explosion in the camp." 

Many Tamil civilians now in camps in Government areas in the east have similar descriptions of what took place. One Tamil man (42) who had been very close to the incident has told relief officers in the new camp that the Tigers had brought artillery mounted on vehicles very close to the refugee camp at Vakarai, fired the big guns and quickly drove away, while civilians looked on in fear or began running for safety. The firing from the armed forces had come soon after that.

Many have said the Tigers did not arrange for the evacuation of the camp before they began firing artillery from close to it. None of these persons
wished to be identified for fear of reprisals by the Tigers.

Military sources said these and other reports from survivors of this tragic incident, most of whom were now in the safety of shelters in Government held
areas, had confirmed that the Tigers had fired from their midst or very close to the civilians in the camp, in a deliberate move to draw retaliatory fire where the civilians would be victims.  

President Mahinda Rajapaksa who expressed deep sorrow and regret at the senseless loss of life of innocent civilians at Vakarai, condemned the
LTTE's tactics of directing long range artillery fire using human shields that led to this tragedy. The President ordered that compensation be paid to the affected families.

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Last Updated Date: November 10, 2006 -12.15 GMT