RIDITHENNA, Sri Lanka, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Some balancing bags on their heads, others with infants clamped to their breasts, all drenched to the bone, hundreds of Tamil refugees emerge from jungle in pouring rain at this transit camp in Sri Lanka's volatile east.
Many have trekked for days, even swum across rivers, to flee a coastal strip of Tamil Tiger-held territory spanning the conflict-battered districts of Trincomalee and Batticaloa to escape the crossfire of a deadly new chapter in the island's two-decade civil war.
Some say the Tigers -- accused by the military of using civilians as human shields -- tried to stop them leaving the rebel-held town of Vakarai around 15 miles (25 km) to the north. Most say they left because of army shelling that killed dozens.
All look to an uncertain future.
"Not a moment of our lives was free of shelling," said 18-year-old Rajendran Krishnakumar, who should have been sitting his A-level exams, as the army sporadically shelled the rebels from nearby. "There are bodies lying around in Vakarai, all the houses have been destroyed. It is a war environment."
He said an army shell killed his 16-year-old brother in November.
"I was in an educational environment, where we had all laid our future on study," he added, beads of rain on his thick black hair and mud caked on his sarong. "For seven months I have missed school and have been moving from place to place. Today we have lost all hope."
SEARCHED FOR INFILTRATORS
Arriving refugees are marshalled by troops with assault rifles into a school in the tiny village of Ridithenna, where they shelter in classrooms and under awnings until they are checked from head to toe by the military -- who worry Tiger infiltrators are among them.
Some have managed to salvage a few possessions: a few clothes, pots and pans, even a bicycle. Many arrive barefoot, with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.
"I left Vakarai in total fear, said 26-year-old Malini Kalidhasan, sodden and shivering, her soaked dress clinging tight to her body and pools of red, muddy monsoon rainwater welling around her bare feet. "We don't know who to blame. We were being shelled, so we left. We could not live there."
"We left without informing the Tigers," she added in her native Tamil, sheltering her two young children with a small umbrella. "Our hope is to go back to Vakarai and establish our life there again."
The military says more than 10,000 people have passed through the transit camp in the past four days. Refugees say at least that many again are still stuck in the rebel-held area, many too old and frail to make the journey.
More than 3,000 civilians, troops and rebel fighters have been killed so far this year and tens of thousands have been displaced amid battles, air raids, ambushes and suicide bombings, leaving a 2002 truce in tatters. More than 67,000 have been killed since 1983.
The Tigers, who accuse successive majority-Sinhalese governments of discriminating against minority Tamils, say they are resuming their fight for an independent state in the island's north and east after President Mahinda Rajapakse rejected their demands for a separate homeland.
The military have vowed to clear the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) out of the Vakarai area, to the shock of international truce monitors who say it belongs to the rebels under the terms of the ceasefire.
"Look at how these people are suffering," said an army major, gesturing at dozens of refugees sheltering under plastic sheets.
"Is this called liberation? They are leaving all their possessions, everything and coming here," said the major, who refused to give his name. "What liberation is the LTTE fighting for?"
