COLOMBO, Sept. 1 -- The International Committee of the Red Cross is expected to seek the release of 129 hostages held on a ferry hijacked by Tamil separatists, the Sri Lankan government said Friday. Earlier this week, separatist guerrillas belonging to the naval unit of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam seized the 'Irish Mona' near the coastalcity of Mullaithivu in the rebel-held northern Jaffna peninsula.
The international aid organization is expected to negotiate with the guerrillas for the release of the mostly Tamil passengers being held on the vessel. Sri Lankan government officials said they had appealed to the Red Cross for help in winning the release of the 121 passengers and eight crew members. A Tamil group, Eelam People Democratic Party, said the passengers on the ferry might be in danger of running out of drinking water. The Irish Mona, run by the Sri Lankan government with the help of the Eelam People's Democratic Party, transports people living on government- controlled islands near the Jaffna peninsula to the mainland. The hijackers Tuesday destroyed two government navy boats that had approached the Irish Mona. The Tamil Tigers' naval wing is well equipped and trained and is an indispensable unit of its guerrilla militia movement. Sri Lanka has been wracked by violence since 1983 when simmering tensions between minority Hindu Tamils and the majority Buddhist Sinhalese population erupted into a full-scale civil war. The Tigers, who claim to represent the country's 3 million Tamils, have been fighting to establish an independent homeland in Tamil- majority areas in the island's north and east.
