MADRAS: Over 250 Tamil refugees have been killed in the mid sea attacks launched by the Lanka Tamil Tigers Eelam since Jan 23 last as the Indian Peace Keeping Force prepares for total withdrawal from the Island republic, the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) sources said here Friday.

The sources said LTTE had sunk six boats and most of those killed were women and children. A boat which suffered the latest attack arrived with seven bodies of refugees at Vekaranyam coast in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu on Feb. 7.

The LTTE had resorted to the midnight attacks to prevent the fleeing of refugees from becoming an issue in India, and also to prevent the cadre of the rival groups from escaping to India, the sources said,

The “most ominous” development in the last few days, EPFLF said was the daring arrival near point Calimere in Coastal Thanjavur district of over 40 LTTE men who took away four boats that brought the refugees the previous day. The armed LTTE men, tied the four boats together and sped off watched by a large crowd of local people, while three boats belonged to the EPRLF, the other was owned by a private operator.

The EPFLF sources said as a defensive action, their cadres and their families were asked to withdraw to safer places and if need be flee to India. While the LTTE, by attacking the refugees wanted to discourage the Tamils from fleeing, their intention was to pursue the fleeing cadre of rival groups and kill them they said.

For this the LITE was using high speed boats provided by the Sri Lankan navy to beat the speed of the refugee boats, they alleged. The rocket launchers fired by the LTTE from the radar fitted naval boats on spotting the refugees boats either blasted the boats or tilted them upside down throwing passenger’s off board.

The sources said the fresh attacks by LTTE had slowed down the flow of refugees but hundreds of people were still waiting at various places in the Tamil majority areas to reach India, The EPRLF has appealed to Tamil Nadu chief minister, Karunanidhi, to provide protection to the refugees on the high.

Article extracted from this publication >> February 16, 1990