COLOMBO (PTH): Militants of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have abducted two officials of United Nation High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and were holding them as hostages, reports said.
Quoting a military spokesman, said the militants abducted. The officials possibly to put pressure on the UN agency not to go ahead with rehabilitation of refugees in camps in areas controlled by the LTTE.
The agency did not give the nationalities of the officials. There was no immediate confirmation available from the UNHCR office in Colombo.
“Lankapuvath” said the UNHCR was keen to rehabilitate refugees in Camps in LTTE held areas to the areas “cleared” by government forces.
It said the militants did not want this as the UNHCR is involved in a big way in rehabilitation of thousands of refugees, some of them returning from camps in Tamil Nadu and others rendered homeless because of the ethnic strife in northeastern Lanka.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 12, 1993
