AS MORE THAN 10,000 REFUGEES WHO WERE KEPT AS COVER ESCAPE VAKARAI, ARMY IS HUNTING DOWN FLEEING TAMIL TIGERS NORTH

By Walter Jayawardhana

Vakarai Hospital

The victorious Sri Lanka Army troops were pursuing the fleeing Tamil Tigers who were running away towards North from their last fallen stronghold of the Eastern seaside town of Vakarai.
Sri Lanka Army sources said that the fleeing terrorists were now confined to Verugal and kathirveli areas, both North of Vakarai and firing mortars to slow down the advancing troops of the army behind them.

About 1 p.m. of Friday January 20 , four Sri Lanka Army soldiers were killed at Eachchilampattu, by the Tiger mortar fire and three were injured. The injured soldiers were admitted to Kanthale General Hospital.

“The scattered terrorists,” said the military sources , “are targeting the advancing troops to slow them down.”

Many refugees who came out of Vakarai confirmed that that they were indeed held by the Tamil Tigers as human shields alleged earlier by the Sri Lanka Army spokesmen.

They told reporters that they were used as a cover by the LTTE and were threatened with death if they left.

A Reuter correspondent reported: "The LTTE did not allow us to move. They threatened us," said 45-year-old paddy field laborer Thambdemuthu Kulasekaran, who with his seven children, wife and disabled mother were among more than 10,000 refugees who fled to government territory on Friday. "There was so much shelling, so we moved to the south to here," he said at an army checkpoint in the town of Mankerni, near what used to be the front line in the area between military and rebels. "I left all my belongings behind.The last meal I had was the day before yesterday."

LTTE members returning in body bags

Sri Lanka Army spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said the LTTE terrorists who fled from Vakarai have formed into small groups and using only small arms and mortars to fire at the troops.
As thousands of refugees came out of Vakarai the Army made a security search on them to find out whether any LTTE men were hiding among them and any weapons being smuggled into the government territory.

The Tamil Tigers were cut off from supplies from sea with the fall of Vakarai. They will now be confined to small jungle patches in the East heading for a difficult times in the Eastern front. It would also be difficult for them to commute between their headquarters in Kilinochchi or Mulathivu, completely cut off from their supply routes of land and sea.

A group of about 20 LTTE cadres , who were suspected of escaping were confronted by the Sri Lanka Army at Siri Mangalapura and Meegasgodella after the fall of Vakarai on Friday. Several of them were killed or wounded, army sources said.

The Army said, troops found the dead body of one terrorist. Two T-56 assault rifles, one RPG bomb, two tents and several LTTE uniforms in a subsequent search operation.

In the adjacent Ampara District in the Eastern Province where the LTTE lost a chain of 12 camps to the elite Special Task Force (STF) a small group of the LTTE guerillas hiding in the jungle attacked back at their enemy with a remotely controlled claymore mine. It was targeted at a STF jeep transporting lunch to some occupied kanjikudichchi-aru forest reserve camps. An Inspector was killed instantly and three STF commandos and a home guard were injured.

During the take over of Vakarai , Army spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said six army troops were killed and 42 were injured and admitted to hospitals. Under very conservative estimates during the last three days 50 LTTE cadres also have died, he said.

Batticaloa Government Agent Sundaram Arumanayagam said about10,000 refugees have come out of Vakarai and half of them have been sent to Mankerni and the other half have been sent to Valachchenai. He said Provincial Secretaries have prepared seven locations for the refugees and they have been sent to those places. He said the Government Agent’s office was able to obtain ten buses and the army gave ten more buses to transport the refugees to the relevant camps. Cooked hot meals will be served to the refugees with the help of the NGO’s he said.

The refugees, after a security checks were packed into the buses with their meager belongings that could be salvaged when they left as soon as the Tamil Tigers left who were holding them as shields to escape army fire, they said.

Dr. T. Vardaraja of the Vakarai hospital said the hospital was handed over to the Army medical Corps and he was one of the last to leave the Vakarai town with the refugees. He said the Army was very helpful in guiding the refugees and directed them along roads which were not mined by the LTTE. All refugees were released to the government controlled areas after a thorough search.

Army spokesman Brigadier prasad Samarasinghe said the Army immediately started de-mining the Vakarai town to prepare it for resettlement for the refugees who have been sent to refugee camps.
Ten LTTE cadres who walked out with refugees have surrendered to the Sri Lanka Army. One more youth who did not surrender was arrested on suspicion of being a LTTE cadre.

The Sri Lanka Army said , “The vital Panichchankerni Bridge linking north and south was taken intact except for minor damages in spite of LTTE attempts to blast it completely.” The Army issued photographs showing the bridge has been damaged at one spot. The Army engineers have started repairing it immediately.