Refugees' bodies washed ashore

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 July 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The bodies of five Tamil refugees drowned when their boat capsized off the shores of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu were washed ashore yesterday at Analaitheevu, an island off the Jaffna peninsula, said sources in Jaffna.

The bodies have been brought to the Jaffna Hospital, the sources added.

Forty-five Tamil refugees, including women and children, were reported to have drowned when their boat capsized in the rough sea off the shores of Thanushkody around midnight on July the 25th.

The boat with 52 people, including 15 women and 5 children had left the Sri Lankan western coast near Thalaimannar on Saturday evening.

Meanwhile the bodies of three of the four people who went missing when an another boat with 17 displaced people returning to Jaffna capsized near Pooneryn, Southwest of Jaffna on Saturday have been found washed ashore said sources.

The group of 17 refugees who had set out from the Vanni to Kurunagar in Jaffna town, failed to make it when the boat ran into trouble the sources added.