By Marilyn Odchimar

COLOMBO, Nov. 26, Reuter: The Indian high commission on Saturday warned it’s national to shun remote areas and stay in the capital following the killings of three Indian civilians at a sugar factory.

It said it has asked Sri Lanka to provide security to Indians working on the island.

The advice was given after three Indians working at a sugar factory in the Southeast district of Monaragala were shot dead on Wednesday by suspected members of the people’s liberation front (SUP).

+General information is that the act was committed by some elements of subversives or extremist Groups operating in the south, + the commission said.

It said it had asked Sri Lankan authorities to provide adequate security for Indian nationals engaged in projects on the island.

Right Britons working as managers at the Pelawatte Sugar Company, also based in Monaragala, were preparing to move to safer places on the island this weekend, company officials said.

Pelawatte officials said the Bri tons would temporarily stay either in Colombo or Bandawawela, a hill resort in the Central Province, and planned to return to the factory when the situation returned to normal.

About 10 Japanese working as volunteers in community projects in the south and four others at a dam project in the southeast were living temporarily in Colombo after the Japanese embassy ad: vised them last week against staying in troubled areas.

Business and transport have been paralyzed in the south since front instigated strikes backed with death threats forced workers to stay home this month.

The front has killed about 600 people, mostly government supporters, since President Junius Jayewardene signed a pact with India to end the rebellion of minority Tamils in the Northern and Eastern Provinces in July 1987.

The front has demanded the scrapping of the pact and the withdrawal of about 50,000 Indian soldiers sent to the two areas to enforce the agreement.

The government said on Saturday anyone tampering with or loitering near electricity transformers will be shot on sight.

Article extracted from this publication >> December 2, 1988