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GoSL is deliberately blacking out the misery of Batticaloa IDPs

Translation of an interview with Fr (Dr) S Jebanesan, of South Indian Church, published in the Tamil Daily Thinakural of 8 April 2007.

Question: Large numbers of people have displaced and are living in misery due to the military activities of the Sri Lankan Government. What is your view of the situation in Batticaloa and the conditions of the IDPs?

Answer: Looking beyond the political issues, and viewing it as a human situation, I would like to say to things. One, an undeclared war is being waged in the Batticaloa district. Second, Batticaloa district has become a district of IDPs.

In Batticaloa district, unprecedented levels of aerial attacks, mortar and multi-barrel attacks are continuing today. This is creating unprecedented levels of displacement.

The Sri Lankan Government is blacking out news about the miseries of the displaced. It is using many tactics to achieve this.

Abducting journalists, threatening anonymous telephone calls to journalists, blocking the newspapers from reaching the people, applying pressure of selected media institutions, and demanding protection money can all be cited as examples of GoSL tactics.

GoSL is implementing its policies by threatening the people. I do not understand the silence of the international human rights bodies. Not only that, religious institutions, heads of religious institutions, civilians organizations are all keeping silent. One is left wondering whether there is a genocide going on.

Question: What is your view on the Batticaloa people who recently displaced?

Answer: 166,000 people have been made into IDPs and are staying in 144 IDP camps, in temples, public places and with friends and relatives. Our church is looking after 10 IDP camps. We make every effort to make the lives of the IDPs in the 10 camps tolerable. Yet, they face many problems and are living in misery.

Even UNICEF has warned that their funds will be exhausted in month due to the increasing number of IDPs they have to care for.

Most of the people who have been made into IDPs are from the middle class. These people had their own land, home, farms, livestock and income. They lived with self respect. Due to the indiscriminate military attacks they left with just what they were wearing. This is the time of harvest for farmers. We can notice their sorrow about the loss of the harvest.

IDPs are facing eight major problems.

1. There is not enough food at the IDP camps.
2. Most do not have adequate shelter from the sun and the rain.
3. The locations of the camps are not secure and in time will be places of societal problems.
4. Not enough drinking and washing water. Hygiene is poor. No enough toilet facilities.
5. Education of children is affected in two ways. IDP children have their education disrupted. Also because schools have been converted into IDP camps, other children's education is also disrupted.
6. What is happening now in this island is what happens in countries where there is a war. In all wars it is the children and women who are the worst affected. According to UNESCO, in Batticaloa, more than 40% of the newborns are dying and more than 50% of the surviving newborns are malnourished. If the situation continues for one month Tamil population here will become a malnourished population.
7. Tamil people here have lost everything to do with their arts and culture.
8. Tamils continue to be affected psychologically.

If the money that was spent on dropping shells and bombs were spent on these people the war may have been brought to an end.

When you see the pathetic situation of people going hungry, it certainly appears as if the GoSL using food as a weapon of war. This action by a government is one of the most brutal acts by a government on a people.

Question: What are you doing in the 10 IPD camps?

Answer: We are giving adequate food to the 10 camps we have undertook to care for. In Alankulam we are building 720 huts to shift some of the IDPs from tents to huts. We are also operating a mobile hospital for these camps.

We have built a park for the children. We are also giving vocational training to the young people. We hope these training will help them to build their own homes when they leave the IDP camps.

10 April 2007

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