Blatant disregard for Govt's gesture:

Tigers' recruitment drive during truce

Shanika SRIYANANDA

Showing blatant disregard for the two-day truce offered by the Government for the LTTE to release the hostages trapped in the narrow coastal belt stretching to a mere 17 kms, the latter have used the opportunity to accelerate abducting more civilians including under-aged children to keep up its shrinking manpower.

The LTTE, which is in its final days of defeat, has also neglected the request by the UN Secretary General Bank-Ki-Moon to permit the civilians to move out of fighting.

According to the sources, less than 1,000 civilians have fled the LTTE control and the human rights activists said that still the LTTE use civilians as a shield for its survival and also to thwart any military push designed to rescue civilians.

However, disrespecting the international pressure to open the gates of the hell-hole to allow the thousands of civilians to move in to Safe Areas,the terrorists had abducted over 300 civilians and according to informed sources they were taken to a temporary camp in Vellamullivaikkal beach front for a crash military training.

Before the two-day `humanitarian pause' came into effect the terrorists did not storm into houses to snatch civilians as the people had strongly protested against the LTTE for recruiting civilians to fight the Security Forces. But, according to the sources, the terrorists in numbers came in tractors and Canter trucks, had abducted people during the `pause in fighting', which ended on last Tuesday.

Meanwhile, in fear of a division of the human shield as a result of the troops of 53 division and Task Force 8 advancing to Vellamullivaikkal and 58 Division to the Ampelavanpokkanai, the terrorists had `chased' the civilians further boxing them from Velayanmadam to Vellamullivaikkal.

The sources claimed that there would be not more than 60,000 civilians living in the No Fire Zone though the LTTE and pro-LTTE NGOs insist there could be over 150,000.

While the troops are preparing for the `final blow' to capture the last portion of LTTE domination and to expedite the military mission to rescue trapped civilians, according to sources, the LTTE has become tough on civilians who tried to escape their grip.

The escapees have said that in some instances the terrorists who want to abandon the outfit had organised to move civilians to Safe Areas. The escape avenues are all mined and the LTTE have deployed Eelam police cadres to deal with the escapees.

According to intercepted transmissions that terrorists who were disgruntled over their recent defeats were trying to flee. They have also concluded that they had to continue the battle not to win Eelam but to protect Prabhakaran. Some of them have even argued with their area leaders to allow them to escape.

Meanwhile, a group of 60 civilians, who have crossed over said that there were nearly 100 civilians with them but the LTTE which shot at them killed over 30 people including children.

The civilians have said that the terrorists had withdrawn deeper into the No Fire Zone (NFZ) and have also mined the areas to cause heavy damages to the advancing troops.

They have also built huge earth bunds to slow down the rescue operations while still positioning the heavy weapons among the population.

In an another clash between the civilians and the Eelam police, one cadre was killed and a few others of the LTTE police were injured. This group of civilians were trying to flee, but got caught by the Eelam police cadres.

The civilians had snatched the guns of the LTTE cadres and fired at them killing one of them.

The cadres of the Eelam police have been deployed to assault and shoot the fleeing my civilians. The sources said that some LTTE police cadres have smuggled civilians after taking money, especially foreign currencies, and gold jewellery.

A top Government official commenting on a ceasefire has said that there was no necessity for the Government to go for a ceasefire at this moment. The ground was set for a historic defeat for the Asia's longest terrorist war.

"It is time as well as the responsibility for the international community to pressurize the LTTE terrorists to allow the civilians to come to the liberated areas. No ceasefire is required if the terrorists stick to this", he said.