SRI LANKA MONITORING MISSION VISITS MAKE SHIFT REFUGEE CENTERS TO INTERVIEW PEOPLE WHO FLED FROM LTTE TERROR
(By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles)
The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission members visited the make shift refugee camps made at the Mankerni Catholic Church and the government school at Mankerni for Tamil refugees who are escaping from LTTE occupied Vakarai area in fear of forced military training and conscription of children as child soldiers., military sources said.
Sri Lanka Army spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said the Monitoring Mission members met the people at both centers and interviewed the refugees who had left their villages in fear of the LTTE recruiters.
The refugees told the European monitors that they had left their villages and their precious fishing boats and even household goods since they were being forced to join the civilian army the LTTE was building to wage war with the Sri Lanka government.
Many parents complained to the monitors that they were also compelled to give up their children to the LTTE for military training.
They said they had to walk through shrub and jungle trekking more than 20 kilometers to reach the Sri Lanka army outpost to seek protection from the intimidation of the LTTE recruiters.
Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said that the number of families who had escaped from the LTTE intimidation had now increased to 58 . The total number now housed in the Mankerni Catholic Church and School are 168 people, consisting of men, women and children. The parents reportedly told the Scandinavian monitors that since they were afraid of sending the children to the schools for fear of them being abducted they thought it was advisable for them to escape.
The Red Cross has joined the army in supplying food for the refugees.
