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| India-Pakistan |
| 100,000 missing in Kilinochchi only 30 people and stray dogs remain |
| 2009-01-09 |
The Sri Lankan flag is flying today over Kilinochchi, but it waves over a ghost town. The only signs of life in Kilinochchi are stray dogs. Journalists who have visited Kilinochchi say that the LTTE left the city in ruins before withdrawing. "Asbestos roofs, doors, windows and all conceivable fittings of every house and establishment in the town had been ripped apart and carted away. The civil and administrative apparatus had been razed to ground. The city's 40-foot-long main water tank was reduced to pieces with powerful explosives. The wires which supplied power had been slashed across the city and through the 8-km length of the town not many electric polls were seen," wrote B Muralidhar Reddy, The Hindu's correspondent in Colombo. Of greater concern than ruined Kilinochchi is the fate of its 100,000 residents. But for some 30 remaining civilians, there is no trace its population. While it is likely that they fled in anticipation of the fighting between the armed forces and the LTTE for control of the town, the possibility that the Tigers would have forcibly taken them to Mullaitivu cannot be ruled out. In 1995, when the LTTE lost Jaffna it took around 350,000 residents into the Vanni region in a bid to show the world that the Tamil people wanted to remain under LTTE rule. Thousands returned to Jaffna in the months that followed. If Kilinochchi's residents have been taken to the Mullaitivu jungles, it is possible that the LTTE will use them as human shields to defend its last bastion. |
| Posted by:3dc |