Refugees haunted by conflict in Sri Lanka

Refugees in Sri Lanka are traumatised, as govt forces and LTTE rebels continue exchanging mortar and artillery fire.

Grief-stricken men, women and children trudge to a refugee camp after fleeing deadly fighting through ghost towns and past decomposing bodies, haunted by what they have seen.

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They are escaping from Sri Lanka's troubled northeast and many do not talk, instead simply gesturing for food and water.

Stunned at the end of a dangerous trek as government forces and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels continue exchanging mortar and artillery fire behind them, the refugees are traumatised, with family and close friends dead.

"There is no one left. Everyone is gone," wails Waralakshmi, a middle-aged woman from a majority Tamil village that was hit by mortar fire.

She says her adult son went missing when shells landed in their village at the weekend and she was separated from her husband during a mad scramble to escape.

The portly woman, her arthritic feet swollen after days of walking through unevenly paved asphalt, has reached the town of Kantale in Sri Lanka's Trincomalee district and hopes to be reunited with her family.

"I know they are somewhere safe," she said, her voice choking with emotion. "It is a nightmare. There are so many missing and dead."

She shuddered as artillery fire erupted in the distance followed minutes later by a dull thud as a shell hit its target.

Pala Nayeem, 31, escaped the town of Muttur with his family by bus and says he counts himself lucky. A shell landed on his shop, destroying it but sparing him, his wife and children.

"I am lucky. But others are not. Our town is over. There is nothing to go back to. There are still dead people there," he said.

The mainly Muslim town of Mutur has been the focus of Tiger attacks since last week as the rebels try to cut off military supply links.

It is also the scene of gruesome atrocities -- civilians believed still lying dead on the road randomly shot by rebels or who were trapped by heavy artillery fire.

The decomposing bodies of 17 mostly Tamil aid workers from the French group ACF were also recovered there, apparently executed at close range.

International aid workers and Norwegian peace monitors have been trying in vain to reach the area to assess the situation and deliver much-needed food and aid to around 5,000 civilians that remain.

But heavy artillery fire from both sides have forced them out, while the rebels have also planted explosives on the road that leads to Mutur from the south.

A report prepared by Sri Lanka's Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies, the group that found the bodies of the ACF field workers, said Mutur was in ruins.

Villages leading up to Mutur were also transformed into "mini-ghost towns" it said, while two ambulances lie abandoned by the roadside.

Survivors in Mutur also pleaded with the agencies to help them negotiate with rebel forces to allow them to retrieve bodies from a nearby road and give them proper burial.

"Unconfirmed reports of bodies of fleeing Muslim youths segregated by the LTTE and having been shot are also lying in the same vicinity," the humanitarian agencies said.

Those who were left behind "feel that they are battered both by the government and the LTTE for strategic and political reasons."

The humanitarian agencies also urged government to thoroughly probe the deaths of the ACF staff, and allow safe access for others still to be recovered and hand them over to next of kin.