Thursday 11 June 2009

The World Today - Australia urged to do more for human rights in Sri Lanka

Thursday, 11 June , 2009 12:38:00

Reporter: Meredith Griffiths

PETER CAVE: The Australian Medical Association wants the Government here to find out what happened to three Sri Lankan doctors reportedly detained by government troops for speaking to journalists about civilian casualties during the final days of the war, and 15 prominent Australians have written to the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd asking him to push the Sri Lankan Government to allow access to refugee camps.

Meanwhile a Canadian politician who has been critical of the Sri Lankan Government's handling of the war has been turned back at the airport in Colombo.

Meredith Griffiths prepared this report.

MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: It's been nearly a month since the guns fell silent in northern Sri Lankan but the fallout of the war is far from over. Thousands of people are living in refugee camps run by the Government.

Amnesty International has raised concerns many people have gone missing or been detained. Among them are three doctors who gave important eye-witness accounts in the final days of the war.

Dr Brian Morton is the New South Wales president of the Australian Medical Association.

BRIAN MORTON: The doctors were treating the thousands of displaced civilians in the war-torn region. Even though the hospitals were damaged they continued to treat injured and sick in those areas in make-shift facilities.

And the three doctors reported heavy bombardments, high civilian suffering and casualties, and they were quoted by international media. It's believed that because of that, retaliation by the Government, despite them being in fact employed by the Government, may have occurred.

MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: When concerns were first raised about their detention the Sri Lankan Government said the three doctors had been making false accusations about the Government forces and had colluding with the Tamil Tigers.

Under Sri Lankan law, the doctors must appear in court once a month. Dr Morton says it's unclear if that's happened or if they've even been charged because no-one's heard from them since the 15th of May.

BRIAN MORTON: The families of the doctors have not had any contact with them; nor have the doctors been given any legal representation. And there is concern that they may be held at the terrorist investigation division in Colombo. And Amnesty International believes that one of the doctors was seriously injured and reportedly airlifted to an unknown destination for treatment.

MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: The AMA wants Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister to urgently intervene and raise concerns with Sri Lankan authorities over the wellbeing and whereabouts of the doctors. That's been backed by Bruce Haigh, a former Australian diplomat in Sri Lanka.

BRUCE HAIGH: And I broaden that call, urging the Federal Government to put in medical assistance for the people in the camps that are now controlled by the Sri Lankan Government. The conditions in those camps are utterly appalling. There's a lack of sanitation. There's a lack of water. There's a lack of food. There's a lack of shelter - anything up to 10 people living in four-man tents.

MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: Bruce Haigh is one of 11 prominent Australians who have written to Kevin Rudd asking him to push Sri Lanka to allow aid agencies and journalists unrestricted access to refugee camps.

The letter signed by high-profile lawyers, academics and bishops also calls for an investigation into allegations that Sri Lankan Government troops committed war crimes including rape and torture.

However Canberra is facing a diplomatic quandary. This week a Canadian politician who has been outspokenly critical of the recent Sri Lanka military offensive, was refused entry to the country. Even though his trip was prearranged Bob Rae was detained at the airport in Colombo on Tuesday night after intelligence officials accused him of being a Tamil sympathiser.

BOB RAE: It really reflects very badly on the situation. I mean, look I mean, you know I'm an MP, I can get a platform, I can make my case, I can fight back. But there's 300,000 very vulnerable people who are being interviewed now and assessed as to whether they are LTTE supporters and if the net catches me it's going to catch an awful lot of other people.

MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: Former diplomat Bruce Haigh says that incident should not stop the Australian Government criticising Sri Lanka.

BRUCE HAIGH: Quite the contrary. The Australian Government should apply pressure on the Sri Lankan Government in concert with the UN and other agencies and the Commonwealth secretariat to get Sri Lanka to behave in accordance with international norms.

Banning Canadians or anybody else from going to Sri Lanka won't solve the problem. That's just a PR exercise and the Australian Government won't get anywhere, and neither will the Canadian Government, if they comply and bend at the knee to the Sri Lankan Government on this.

Maybe they'd want to do it behind closed doors but there needs to be some pretty tough negotiations with the Sri Lankans.

PETER CAVE: The former Australian diplomat Bruce Haigh ending that report from Meredith Griffiths.

The ABC has tried to contact the Sri Lankan High Commissioner today but he has been unavailable for comment.

---
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2008/s2595448.htm]

Wednesday 10 June 2009

Government Threats, ‘Disappearances’ After Past Military Victories Are Cause for Concern-HRW

Government Threats, ‘Disappearances’ After Past Military Victories Are Cause for Concern-HRW
Avoid a Postwar Witch Hunt
By HRW
The Sri Lankan government should ensure that military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam does not result in new "disappearances," unlawful killings or the jailing of government critics, Human Rights Watch said today.
The Sri Lankan government appears from its statements to be preparing to take action against individuals and organizations that criticized it during the war, Human Rights Watch said. On June 3, 2009, the media minister, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardana, said the Defense Ministry was preparing to bring charges against journalists, politicians, armed forces personnel and businessmen who have assisted the LTTE.
"The last thing Sri Lankans need right now is a witch hunt," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The country desperately needs healing. The government should make clear to everyone, especially Tamils, that it will respect their rights."
In addition to the media minister's statement, in late May, the Army commander, Gen. Sarath Fonseka, said in a televised interview that the government would take action against journalists whose reporting benefited the LTTE, saying that they would be prevented from leaving the country and prosecuted for treason. Inspector General of Police Jayantha Wickremeratne accused unnamed Sinhalese media-freedom activists of being paid by the LTTE to generate false reporting intended to implicate the army in war crimes.
Sri Lankan security forces have long been implicated in enforced disappearances and unlawful killings following the capture of LTTE strongholds. In the 12 months after government forces captured the northern town of Jaffna from the LTTE in December 1995, more than 600 people, mostly young men suspected of having LTTE links, "disappeared." Although several mass graves have since been uncovered, the fate of most of them has never been determined, and successful prosecutions of security forces personnel have been few.
Enforced disappearances and killings of people suspected of being LTTE supporters also occurred in association with the government's taking of LTTE-controlled territory in eastern Sri Lanka in late 2006 and early 2007. Government security forces were implicated in the mafia-style killing of 17 humanitarian aid workers shortly after government forces retook the northeastern town of Mutur from the LTTE in August 2006. Human Rights Watch reported on numerous serious human rights violations in the east in late 2008.
"Disappearances" of ethnic Tamils in the north and east and in the capital, Colombo, allegedly by members of the security forces or Tamil armed groups remain a serious problem.
"The Sri Lankan government needs to ensure that the abuses that occurred when LTTE strongholds fell in the past don't recur," said Adams. "This is crucial for building trust between communities."
The government announced victory over the LTTE on May 18 after a devastating 25-year conflict. The last months of fighting came at a terrible cost in civilian lives, estimated at more than 7,000 civilian dead and 14,000 wounded. Human Rights Watch reported on serious violations of international humanitarian law by both sides. However, a full accounting of abuses is not yet possible because of government restrictions on access to the conflict zone by the media and human rights organizations.
Since 2008, virtually all civilians who managed to flee the fighting to government-controlled areas have been sent to government detention camps in northern Sri Lanka. Almost 300,000 persons, including entire families, are currently in these camps, where they are denied their liberty and freedom of movement, either for work or to move in with other families.
In recent months, the government has also detained more than 9,000 alleged LTTE fighters and persons with suspected LTTE connections. The United Nations and other international agencies have had little or no access to the screening process, and the government has in many cases failed to provide families of the detained with any information. Many families still do not know the fate and whereabouts of their relatives.
Human Rights Watch urged the Sri Lankan government to take steps to ensure the safety of both civilians and LTTE fighters taken into custody. This includes registering and providing public information about all persons who have been in LTTE-controlled areas, and allowing international humanitarian agencies to participate in processing them. Those detained should have prompt access to family members and legal counsel.
The Sri Lankan government has rejected calls from opposition politicians to end Sri Lanka's state of emergency and to repeal the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act, which has been used to arrest and indefinitely detain suspected LTTE supporters and government critics.
Human Rights Watch called upon the Sri Lankan government to treat internally displaced persons in accordance with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and respect their basic human rights.
"The government should recognize that respecting the rights of all its citizens, including political opponents and critics, displaced civilians and captured combatants, will have important long-term implications for Sri Lanka's future," Adams said.

Bob Rae: "I have flown a very long way only to be told the door is firmly shut."

http://transcurrents.com/tc/2009/06/bob_rae_i_have_flown_a_very_lo.html#more

Bob Rae: "I have flown a very long way only to be told the door is firmly shut."
Sri Lanka on Wednesday, on June 10th deported Bob Rae MP from Colombo. He was briefly detained at the airport.
"The government of Sri Lanka knew my views, and granted me a visa," Rae said in an emailed statement. "I have flown a very long way only to be told the door is firmly shut."
Following is a Recent op-ed by Bob Rae MP:
If there is no magnanimity in victory, there is no victoryAn article by MP Bob Rae, Liberal Foreign Affairs Critic
We are told that celebrations have broken out in the Sinhala community in Colombo. That is understandable, but it should be a celebration marked with sadness as well. "The war is over", the crowds will shout. But there is a difference between a war ended by agreement and a war ended by death and destruction.We are told that celebrations have broken out in the Sinhala community in Colombo. That is understandable, but it should be a celebration marked with sadness as well. "The war is over", the crowds will shout. But there is a difference between a war ended by agreement and a war ended by death and destruction.
The tens of thousands of deaths, towns and villages destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people made homeless in this long conflict have not, until recently, dominated the airwaves and televisions of the Western world. Seven years ago there was a window in this terrible tragedy, a ceasefire brokered by Norway in the wake of unprecedented bombings in the South and a dramatic toughening of world opinion after 9/11. As Chairman of the Forum of Federations, I attended most of the negotiating sessions of the so-called peace talks, and met with the leaders of government, opposition, civil society and the LTTE, known as the Tamil Tigers. I have been back many times since. I think of the possibilities of peace in the years after 2000 and I weep at the lost opportunity, the lost lives. So many dead now that were once alive, debating the possibilities and prospects for peace.
It is impossible to say anything about what is happening without enraging opinion on both sides. But some things must be said. The Sinhala community - the majority population - took power after the departure of the British in 1949 and over a long period made a series of disastrous decisions: imposing their language and religion (Buddhism) as the only official expression of the country, limiting access to universities and the civil service by the Tamil community, and refusing to broaden the country's politics to allow an effective expression of Tamil opinion. Repeated attempts by moderate Tamils to effect change were met by a stone wall of resistance. What had been a parliamentary issue turned violent in the 1970's, with the Tamil Tigers emerging as the most powerful guerrilla force after that time. The Tigers were ruthless at killing their opponents and insisting that they and they alone would represent the Tamil people. Their goal was an independent Tamil state in the north and northeast controlled by the Tamil Tigers.
We are always looking for "good guys and bad guys" in a dispute. The Sri Lankan government, for example, insists that the only way to understand what is happening is that the Tigers are thugs and terrorists and so have to be eliminated. The Tigers and their apologists will point to the evil of a corrupt government that they say wants to eliminate the Tamils entirely.
The Tigers are ruthless and have never made the transition from a guerrilla army to a democratic force. They use suicide bombers against civilians and recruit children into their army. But their support around the world is partly based on the sense of the Tamil people that they have never been able to find justice inside a failed state. The Tigers appear as the only public voice for the many grievances of the Tamil population inside Sri Lanka. That does not justify or excuse suicide bombings and the recruitment of children. But it does mean that the narrative of "they're terrorists and that explains everything" is simply inadequate.
The collapse of the peace talks in 2003, the tsunami, the escalation of killings and assassinations, and the official termination of the ceasefire by the government in 2008 meant that the advocates of a "military solution" on both sides won out. In recent months, we witnessed an escalation of the violence as the Sri Lankan government defeated their opponents once and for all. Hundreds of thousands have been affected by this conflict, with thousands still remaining in internal displacement camps at the hands of their Sri Lankan adversaries. While the fighting seems to have stopped for now, the hard work only begins.
The north of the country has been devastated by this war - there will be no pictures on state controlled television of the dead and wounded, the villages destroyed and the lives shattered. I can remember some years ago a senior government official expressing shock at the physical destruction in and around Jaffna when he paid a visit after the ceasefire. "I had no idea it was that bad". I expressed deep surprise that he didn't know, the hospitals and schools destroyed, the homes wiped out, the sheer scale of the physical destruction. The same holds true today.
These hundreds of thousands are not terrorists. The world cannot stand by and do nothing while they attempt to rebuild their lives. The international community can't allow the Sri Lankan government to say "it's an internal matter" and stay away. Nor can Canada, with its long history of engagement in this issue and it hosting the largest population of Tamils outside of South Asia, stay silent any longer. Political accommodation and reconciliation must emerge if this conflict is to be resolved. The Tamil community of Sri Lanka cannot be ignored, but must be brought into the fold if the Sri Lanka has any chance of securing long term peace and stability.
The many and widely attended demonstrations over the past several weeks throughout the world have proven just how powerful these grievances remain in the Tamil community both within and outside Sri Lanka. A military victory is not enough.
If there is no magnanimity in victory, there is no victory. I shall go back to the Vanni, because the effort must still be made. But it is hard not to cry at what has been lost, how much life has been destroyed. And what must still be done to bring justice to the peace that is being proclaimed so loudly.
MP Bob Rae is Liberal Party of Canada's Foreign Affairs critic

Grief and despondency in Sri Lanka's camps

http://www.alertnet.org/db/blogs/58861/2009/05/9-095652-1.htm
Grief and despondency in Sri Lanka's camps
09 Jun 2009 09:56:00 GMT09 Jun 2009 09:56:00 GMT


Written by: A writer in Sri Lanka
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
Photo taken by author " src="http://www.alertnet.org/images/inlines/db/blogs/58861/2009/05/9-095652-1_htm/user/mainimage.0.inline.jpg" border=0 name=mainimage>
Internally displaced people in a government-run camp in northern Sri Lanka/Photo taken by author
blog ## for search indexer, do not remove -->She stood in the door frame of a former clothing factory in northern Sri Lanka. A tiny little woman with long, slightly grey hair pulled back in a ponytail. In her hand she held a small plastic photo album. She showed it to everyone who passed. There was no way I could understand what she said in Tamil but as I looked at the photos of three children, I understood the tone. It was one of absolute grief.
Her story was slowly revealed through a translator. In the last months of the Sri Lankan conflict her daughter, two sons and husband were killed. One son is still alive but he had been moved from the hospital. She doesn't know where he is or if he was ok, and she's not allowed to go and find him.
The army guard in the clothing factory says this woman is depressed. Maybe. But really, she is just human.
And in the government-run camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) scattered around northern Sri Lanka, there are thousands of stories like hers.
Hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans were displaced across the island due to the country's 25-year-long conflict between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels fighting for a separate homeland. The military declared victory over the rebels last month but tens of thousands of civilians who were until recently trapped between troops and rebels in the final war zone in the northeast of the island are now living in the camps.
The camps are largely closed to the outside world. Only a few aid agencies are allowed in and even then, the groups regularly face the risk of being thrown out. But I was able to enter two.
I visited the Sahanagama Welfare Centre and the Kanijaveli Sinhala Maha Vidyalaya Welfare Centre, both near Pulmoddai. I was also able to gain access to the local hospital satellite site set up in an old factory.
What I saw was bad. Out of the two camps only one looked like it might reach Sphere minimum humanitarian standards - providing basic human needs. But just barely.
In one camp, Vidyalaya Welfare Centre, there is one toilet to roughly every 190 IDPs - 20 toilets for the 4000 plus held there.
A pharmacist and IDP from the northern city of Jaffna voices serious concerns. She says it is only a matter of time before diseases like typhoid spread unchecked through the camp. She also worries about the heat. It is so hot between 8 am and 5 pm that everyone is forced out of their tents. Water is hard to access during this time, putting the IDPs in a no-win situation.
But as I said, this is the good camp. There are five roughly built kitchens. The IDPs are arranged in working parties to cook and serve the meals. There is room for the children to run around and play. They also had books to study and makeshift classrooms to use.
The 2300 IDPs housed just down the road at the Sahanagama Welfare Centre are not so lucky. Housed in a small school, these Tamils overflow into hallways and sleep in the school courtyard under sheets of plastic.
Children use the small space not covered by sleeping adults to play, but there is barely any room. When it's mealtime and people line up for the food, the free space is reduced even further. Food is prepared off site by a local charity and shipped in. The school smells of human waste and sweat.
In one small classroom there are over 15 families - 60 people in all. Lying amongst all these people is a little boy wrapped in white fabric with his arms pinned to his side on a thin mat and green leaves. I'm told he has chicken pox. The leaves are a natural remedy.
There is a new-born baby sleeping barely a metre away. The families are worried the chicken pox might spread, with fatal consequences. But what choice do they have? There is nowhere to quarantine him.
The worst of all is the satellite site of the local hospital, housed in the former clothing factory, where I met the grieving widow. An elderly naked woman is dying on the floor, her mouth and eyes covered in flies. When I ask why the old woman is given no help, the military guard simply shrug their shoulders.
Inside this large hollow factory, the smell of too many people hits me like a wall. The injured and the IDPs are separated by a screen of balsam wood. The floors walls and beds are dirty.
While walking amongst the people, I meet two children lying on a bed - a brother and a sister. In the midst of the army's final push to conquer the Tamil Tigers their parents were killed.
The little girl lost four fingers on her right hand. All she has left is a thumb. As the war raged a priest grabbed these two children and pushed them into the arms of a stranger, a woman who brought the siblings to safety and stayed with them through surgery. She is still with the two when I meet them, but she isn't their mother. When these children are allowed to leave the camps, maybe in six months, a year or even two, their future will be uncertain.
The camps I saw are just the small ones. If the military and their resources are being overwhelmed here, with less then 8,000 displaced people in all, there is no imagining what the larger camp in Vavuniya is like. There, the charities and the government are trying to deal with an estimated more than 180,000 IDPs.
In all the places I visited the healthy children ran up to me and grabbed my arms. Despite everything they had seen, these children could smile, laugh and have hope. But with locks keeping them in the camps and the Western world out, hope is the one thing I struggle to give in return.
Reuters AlertNet is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Monday 8 June 2009

Sri Lanka navy confirms aid cargo

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8087817.stm - 07.06.09

Sri Lanka navy confirms aid cargo

By Charles Haviland
BBC News, Colombo

Captain Ali at sea off the Sri Lankan coastline
The navy searched the vessel with the crew on board

The Sri Lankan navy says it has found only food, medical items and similar goods on board a ship sent by Tamil expatriate groups in Europe.

The vessel was intercepted by the navy days ago and the government said the expedition was intended to help the now-defeated Tamil Tiger rebels.

But a Tamil spokesman denies this, saying he hoped aid would still reach Tamils displaced by the war.

A navy spokesman could not comment on what would happen to the cargo.

A naval team has been searching the Captain Ali vessel, but the spokesman told the BBC that up to now it had found only food and medical items.

Those on board are a British Tamil citizen, 13 crew members from Syria and Egypt, and an Icelandic man.

He said the search had stopped for now and the navy personnel still on board were very friendly and courteous.

The expedition began in two legs from Britain and France in April and May.

'Divisive' description

Sri Lanka's defence ministry had described the boat as an "LTTE [Tamil Tiger] vessel".

But the defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, in a Sunday newspaper interview, has confirmed that the ship "did not have any dangerous intentions".

A London-based spokesman for the voyage, Arjunan Ethirveerasingam, said such a description was divisive and damaging.

The organisers wanted to continue sending aid to the vast number of Tamils displaced by the war, he said.

He said the ship had nothing whatsoever to do with the Tamil Tigers, although he acknowledged that when it first set out, it was planning to go directly to what was then the war zone.

Mr Ethirveerasingam says he was concerned for the welfare of the man in Sri Lanka due to take delivery of the goods, a diabetic who, he says has been in detention since Thursday morning at the Criminal Investigation Department.

.

Sri Lanka Turns Away Tamil Aid Ship!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8090110.stm - 08.06.09

S Lanka turns away Tamil aid ship

By Charles Haviland
BBC News, Colombo

Captain Ali at sea off the Sri Lankan coastline
The Captain Ali was carrying food and medicine from Tamils in Europe

Sri Lanka has turned away a ship which came from Europe carrying aid for Tamil civilians displaced in the final months of the civil war, officials say.

Late last week the Sri Lankan navy intercepted the vessel, which was sent by Tamil expatriate groups.

But a navy spokesman told the BBC that the vessel, the Captain Ali, had been ordered to clear Sri Lankan waters.

A UK-based spokesman for the group which sent the ship, described the move as "disheartening".

The navy spokesman said the vessel had been ordered to clear Sri Lankan territorial waters and not come to Colombo harbour or unload anything.

Asked whether this was not a waste of the hundreds of tonnes of food and medical aid on board, the navy spokesman said he could not comment as the decision had been made by the defence ministry.

No defence official was immediately available for comment.

The spokesman for the Tamil expatriate group said the government could have used the ship to engage with the Tamil diaspora as a move towards reconciliation.

He said the emergency aid on board was desperately needed by refugees in the north.

The defence ministry here earlier described the Captain Ali as a Tamil Tiger vessel, but the defence secretary said on Sunday that the ship "did not have any dangerous intentions".

Sri Lanka: Inside the Manik Farm detention centre

World Socialist Website By our correspondent
8 June 2009

The following report was provided by an elderly person who visited several relatives being held in one of the internment camps set up by Sri Lankan authorities to house nearly 300,000 civilians who fled during the final weeks of fighting between the army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Manik Farm is about 30 kilometres from the northern town of Vavuniya. It is the biggest camp established by the army, housing more than 160,000 Tamil refugees. They fled from the last strip of territory held by the LTTE after facing constant shelling by the military.

One reaches Manik Farm only after the harrowing process of passing through several army checkpoints. What one sees is a huge open prison with men, women, children, the elderly and the injured. It is behind barbed and razor wire fences and guarded by heavily armed security personnel.

There are rows and rows of small tents or rooms made of aluminum seats or wooden planks. Basic facilities like water and sanitation are inadequate. At least two families live in each tent or room. When the wind blows or a vehicle passes by, people are showered with dust.

There are four camps at Manik Farm: Ramanathan, Kadirgamar, Arunachalam and Anandakumaswamy. Each houses nearly 40,000 people. Armoured vehicles travel up and down the road near the camps frequently. People are not allowed to walk along the main road from one camp to another. They have to hire a three-wheeler taxi and pay 100 to 150 rupees for one or two kilometres.

Visitors have to walk through the barbed wire fences to an open space near the camp. Small huts act as waiting rooms. Hundreds of visitors are waiting to see their loved ones and there is not enough room in the huts. Many have to stand outside in the burning sun. There are no toilets. For drinking water there is a plastic water barrel in each hut. Outside there are small shops that serve tea and a few snacks.

The police officers arrive after 9 a.m. to register your details, including your name and the unit number and block number of the detainee you are going to visit. Mobile phones and cameras are banned. You have to leave them at one of the shops. Some shopkeepers charge 50 rupees just to look after a mobile phone.

There are several of my relatives in camps in Manik Farm. I first went to Ramanathan camp hoping to see one of my sisters and her sons. A Tamil-speaking man in civilian clothes arrived and started to collect the details of detainees each of us was going to visit. I gave my details to him. He abruptly said I couldn’t visit that day. They have allocated separate days for each camp.

Although I argued that I had come from Colombo, he told me that nothing could be done. He refused to let me speak to a senior officer to complain. I was compelled to abandon the idea of meeting my relatives there. Then I visited Kadirgamar camp and had to go through the same process.

They called my brother but he was on the other side of a barbed wire fence. He was crying. I saw several persons crying after seeing their relatives. Some have been separated from their parents. Some have been separated from their spouses.

Meeting a relative is like speaking to a prisoner. You only get 15 to 30 minutes. The police on guard come to tell you when the time is up. No one gets more time. You can give basic gifts such as food and clothing but only after they are thoroughly checked. The police are checking all the time you are talking.

My brother explained to me that because of the war he had to move from one place to another from mid-December. Finally they reached Mathala in the Mullaithivu coastal area. There were tens of thousands of people there. They did not have enough food and just had the clothes they arrived in. They kept running from one trench to another under the thunder of shelling. Many died.

Finally they decided to leave in April. They trekked about 8 kilometres. The army first tried to shoot them. Then they were asked to wait several hours. Thereafter the army took them to Manik Farm. For two weeks they were provided with pre-cooked food parcels.

Now they have been given 4 vessels and a few spoons to cook with. Each person receives 3 kilograms of rice, 3 kg of flour and 300 grams of sugar and a little dhal [lentils] for a month. The army has opened a few shops to sell vegetables and other food items. But without any money most people cannot buy anything. They cannot imagine eating vegetables and other food and have to live on what they are given.

Drinking water is supplied by lorries, but that too is not enough. There is a river running through the camp but with very little water to have a bath. People have no soap. The toilets are built with polythene or aluminum seats. However, there are not enough.

Soldiers or policemen in civilian clothes roam around the camp even checking the toilets. No one is allowed to even stand in the shade outside a hut. They are scolded and told to leave.

Most parents with teenagers never sleep at night because they are worried their sons and daughters will be abducted. The names of young people are often called out and they have to go to the office. The officials say they are being investigated. Some of them come back, others do not. Even the parents are not informed where they have been taken and why.

It is a terrible situation.