(Courtesy: The San Francisco Chronicle, by Dexter Cruez) COLOMBO, SRI LANKA: All 136 Passengers aboard a ferry seized this week by Tamil separatists have been taken off the ship and are safe, but the rebels are refusing to free some of them, officials said Sept.4.
The passengers, including 15 children, were visited by members of the Red Cross, said Mohammad Junai top government in Colombo, the capital.
Junaid refused to give other details Of the Red Cross visit or to say under ‘what circumstances the passengers deft the ship.
The rebels refused to release some of the passengers and are holding the ferry’s eight crew members, said Douglas Devananda, a lawmaker aligned with a rival Tamil group that is helping the armed forces fight the ‘Tamil Tiger guerrillas. The rebels said that some members of Devananda’s group are aboard the ferry, but Devananda said that is not true.
“They are trying to justify hijacking the ship by saying that my people are on board,” he said.
The guerrillas placed several conditions on the release of the passengers, ‘a senior government official said on condition of anonymity. The official did not specify the rebel’s demands.
The 125ton ferry Iris Moana is anchored 175 miles northeast of Colombo.
Tamil Tiger rebels halted the ferry off the northeastern coast that action drew two navy gunboats to the scene, which the rebels sank, leaving 21 sailors missing and presumed dead. Since then, warships and aircraft have stayed away from the ferry, fearing that raids could endanger the passengers and crew, It is unclear what the military plans to do now that the passengers are off the ferry. In Colombo, police said that they had discovered a plot by rebels to blow up the city’s World Trade Center, a37story building that will be the tallest in the Sri Lankan capital once it is completed.
Article extracted from this publication >>September 8, 1995
