BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka, November 6 (UNHCR) –

As the tide of people uprooted by fighting in northern Sri Lanka continues to swell, there's overlooked good news in the east of the country: internally displaced people (IDPs) are returning home with help from the government, UNHCR and its partners.Some 230,000 persons are said to be displaced in the Kilinochchi and Mullativu districts as a result of intensified military operations to regain the last stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Humanitarian agencies have sent emergency supplies to feed the IDPs, most of whom are accommodated in the Mullativu district.

More humanitarian convoys carrying food and shelter material are planned during the coming weeks.Sri Lanka's east experienced a similar wave of displacement two years ago when government forces regained LTTE-held territories in the region. By the end of March 2007, some 170,000 people were reportedly displaced across the Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts.All but 11,000 IDPs in Batticaloa and more than 4,500 persons in Trincomalee have returned home since the start of the government-facilitated process last year, which has seen substantial improvements thanks to interventions by the UN refugee agency and other humanitarian agencies operating in the east.

The Navy rescued three Tamil families with their toddlers and teenage children accompanied by a male adult in the Eastern seas off Pulmudai in the wee hours of Wednesday. The group numbering 13 which includes 8 males and 5 females, had been fleeing from LTTE captivity in Mullaitivu on board a fibre glass dinghy flying a white flag for protection, evading the hawkish eyes of the LTTE cadres on the prowl, when they were encountered by the naval personnel who are exclusively deployed in the Northern seas as a part of the Navy’s humanitarian mission to rescue the fleeing innocent Tamil civilians, the Navy said.

The first family consisted of a father aged 47 and his two teenage children -a son aged 13 and a daughter aged 18. The second family comprised of two young parents -a father and a mother, both aged 22- and their baby son who is just 02 years of age. They were also accompanying their teenage brother aged 15 who was living with them for protection. The third family, which also consisted of young parents, a father and a mother aged 29 and 23 respectively, have two young daughters, of whom one is just five years and the other is barely one and half years of age.

“Sooner the world realizes what the LTTE is doing with the IDPs, the better. It will help create a world opinion against the LTTE to release the civilians that they are trapping in the Wanni jungles to evade total annihilation at the hands of the State's security forces.”

by Nacholibre

"Efforts to mislead Wanni youth into the LTTE recruitment drive unravelled."

Major concerns have arisen among defence and humanitarian aid circles following a startling revelation made by the security forces now operating deep inside the LTTE territory in Kilinochchi. The findings have given cause for reasonable suspicions of the sort of 'humanitarian' activities conducted by some famed INGOs for years in the non-liberated Wanni region.

According to available evidence, it appears that the local propaganda newspapers, published by the LTTE, carried advertisements from international aid and relief organizations such as the ICRC, Save the Children and the Danish Refugee Council for vacancies in their organizations, alongside LTTE obituaries for its terrorist cadres, in the Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts.