COLOMBO: Local and foreign non-governmental organizations are moving out of the eastern region of the country after an LTTE attack on three aid offices in the area. The pullout of NGOs comes as the European Union on Tuesday requested the government for an assurance on the safety of humanitarian groups functioning in the volatile north and east.

The Non Violent Peace Force (NVPF), ZOA (a Dutch agency helping refugees), and Intersos (an Italian relief organization), based in eastern Trincomalee, were attacked simultaneously with grenades on Sunday injuring a Serbian aid worker.

“The attack was carried out at a time when the eastern people need humanitarian support the most. Some of the NGOs have pulled out but some are continuing with their work despite the obvious threat of more attacks,” said a member of a peace lobbying NGO based in Trincomalee.

The European Union has urged the Sri Lankan government to prosecute those who lobbed hand grenades at the offices of the three international aid groups.

The statement released by the European Union on Tuesday said the EU was concerned about the lack of effective follow-up by the government on past violent acts and the development of a ‘culture of impunity’.

Nearly four hundred killings have taken place in the north and the east since January that have not been investigated.

“The EU turns to the government to investigate these incidents and bring about prosecutions so that no one is in doubt that such ‘barbaric acts’ will be tackled,” the statement said.

The request by the EU for full-scale inquiry by the government comes as the LTTE in a statement posted in its peace secretariat website denied military allegations that the Tigers were behind the attack.

“The LTTE has no interest in expelling these international NGOs from the north-east,” the rebels asserted while most international agencies quoting the Sri Lankan army said that the LTTE were responsible.

Meanwhile, Norwegian Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Hans Brattskar, met S.P. Thamilchelvam, Political Head of the LTTE, on Tuesday in the wake of heightening violence that has left nearly 10 people dead since Monday.

Two military personnel and a policeman were killed in a Claymore explosion in northern Vavuniya on Wednesday morning.

The latest killings come in the wake of LTTE threats that they will resort to war if the European Union goes ahead with its plan to ban the LTTE that is expected by end of this month.