Wednesday, August 9 2006 10:09 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Sri Lanka's Muslim community is seeking urgent international support for the thousands rendered homeless in the island's east due to fighting between government forces and Tamil Tigers.

With some 30,000 men, women and children having already fled Mutur town in Trincomalee district and adjoining areas and more trickling out, community leaders say a major humanitarian crisis has taken root.

"It is perhaps the largest Muslim refugee problem outside of Lebanon," said Basheer Segu Dawood, chairman of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and also a member of parliament.

Basheer, as he is widely known, told sources on telephone that Muslims were appealing to the co-chairs of Sri Lanka's peace process (Norway, Japan, the US and the European Union), the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) and India to come to the aid of the beleaguered community.

The refugee crisis began when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) attacked the seaside town of Mutur, which overlooks Trincomalee harbour, early this month, leading to heavy shelling by the Sri Lankan military. As panic set in, many among the 70,000, mainly Muslim people, started to flee.

Basheer said some 25,000 had fled Mutur so far and more were desperate to get out. Another 4,000 had left nearby Thoppur town. Many Tamils left Mutur for LTTE areas even as Muslims made it to safer government-held territory.

"In just one school building at Kantalai (in Trincomalee district), around 13,000 people are packed. They have nothing except the clothes they were in when they fled Mutur. There are just two or three toilets. Can you imagine what people are going through?" he asked, speaking mostly in Tamil.

"Another 1,500 families have taken shelter in Kinniya (also in Trincomalee). The conditions in the refugee centres are very difficult," the 46-year-old politician added. "This is the biggest refugee crisis Muslims have been battling since the LTTE forced out thousands of Muslims from Jaffna in the early 1990s.

"We want the co-chairs to hold an emergency meeting to discuss our plight. This is a humanitarian crisis. We have approached India. We want the OIC to act," he said.

Basheer admitted that the Tigers alerted Mutur's Muslim leadership about their impending attack two hours ahead of time and added that the LTTE's intention was probably not to drive away the Muslims," he said.

"But they would have surely known that Muslims would run away," he said.

"That did happen because the military also shelled Mutur badly and they did not listen to our desperate pleas to stop the shelling," he said.

"When people fled they had just their clothes; nothing else. People walked and walked for miles. On the way some children fainted asking for water. Why did all this happen?" he said.

"There is so much fear now that children fear even the sound of motorcycles. Many do not want to return to Mutur. They fear everyone. The LTTE also took away some Muslim men for questioning. We don't know their fate," he said.

Muslims, who speak Tamil but call themselves a distinct community, constitute eight percent of Sri Lanka's 20 million but a third of the population in the multi-ethnic east. Initially many Muslims sided with Tamil militancy. But over the years they drifted away, finally leading to major Tamil-Muslim fissures.

The SLMC leader pointed out that some two months ago anonymous leaflets in the name of the LTTE - which the Tigers disowned warned Mutur Muslims to quit. So some tensions were already in the air.

He said ordinary Sri Lankans and, to some extent, the authorities were providing assistance to the Muslim refugees. Food is being cooked on a mass scale.

"But Kantalai is a Sinhalese-majority area, and so there are tensions," he said.

"Many Muslims have gone as far as Colombo, Kurunegala, Anuradhapura and Kandy in search of shelter," he said.

Basheer criticised both Colombo and the LTTE for the Muslim suffering.

"The government says it won the Mutur battle, the Tigers claim they achieved their objectives. But people suffered and the government failed to give security in an area it governed. People are now refugees. Is this not a fact?" he said.