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NEW DELHI, INDIA, June 27, 2006: Drenched, exhausted and carrying their meagre belongings in battered suitcases, Sri Lankan Tamils continue to arrive in India by boats, with activists warning that the flow is likely to go up. On Monday, 114 Tamil civilians belonging to 41 families landed on Tamil Nadu’s shore. It was the highest number for a single day in June. This included 45 men, 38 women, 17 male children and 14 female children. On Tuesday, the total was just 18 (four men, six women and eight children) in the morning hours, possibly due to increased surveillance on the sea dividing India and Sri Lanka following the assassination in Colombo a day earlier of Sri Lankan Army Gen. Parami Kulatunga by a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber. Tamil Nadu officials said more could land during the day on Tuesday. The latest arrivals has taken the number of Tamil civilians fleeing to Tamil Nadu from Sri Lanka’s northeast, to escape escalating violence, to 3,487 since January 12 when the tide began. “Who knows, the figure may touch 3,500 today itself,” S.C. Chandrahasan, who heads OFERR, a NGO working among Sri Lankan Tamil refugees. Mr. Chandrahasan said the refugees, who are housed in camps set up close to Tamil Nadu’s coast, were landing with bitter stories of attacks on them by Sri Lankan security forces in the northwestern district of Mannar. “The refugee flow is only going to increase,” he said, explaining what he said was “a very simple reason.” “People (Tamils) over there (in Sri Lanka) are telling officials to let them fish or give them ration (food). They are also demanding security. If this can’t be given, they want to be allowed to go to India. Since this is not happening, they will keep arriving,” he said. He mentioned this month’s attack on a historic church at Pesalai in Mannar when unruly security forces fired at Tamils who had taken shelter in the building following clashes between the military and the LTTE. “After that massacre, one day no one came,” Mr. Chandrahasan said. “The next two days less than 20 people came. But again the flow picked up. Yesterday (Monday) was the highest figure for June,” he added. Tamil Nadu has traditionally provided sanctuary to Tamils fleeing the island.

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