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Food terrorism – Sinhala governing of Tamils

These checkpoints became places for regular threats and humiliation for the Tamils. It also has and continues to be a place for more sinister activities and many Tamils have gone missing after inquiries at these checkpoints. The end result is that in the minds of Tamils these checkpoints have become a huge psychological burden to be avoided whenever possible. Tamils would check their luggage carefully to see if there are any items that would make them target for Sinhala military action. Such items could be anything that conveys their support for their struggle. Tamils with scars on their bodies and there are thousands of them following the decades long State violence against Tamils suffer regularly at these checkpoints. This is the first level checkpoint blockage that Tamils face.

Complete closure of these checkpoints, the third level blockage, thus cutting off the Tamil areas from the rest of the world is also used by the Sinhala State. Jaffna has faced this plight in the past and is facing it presently for 18 months. The situation in Jaffna cut off from the world with shortages of food, many livelihoods like fishing and farming severely restricted and death squads roaming freely is hell on earth. Yet, because it is cut off from the world no one writes about it and those inside are unable to speak about it due to the threats posed by the Sinhala State operated death squads.

A second level blockage is to restrict even essential items like medicine, food, and fuel to Tamils areas by using these checkpoints. The Sinhala State began re-enforcing restriction on fuel and cement to Tamil areas as way as 2006. Many non-government organizations involved in war and tsunami reconstruction were forced to leave the Tamil areas because these restrictions hindered their reconstruction work. This gradual screwing up of life saving items has been going on ever since. Vanni has faced this during Eelam War III. The dreadful effect of this, child diseases due to malnutrition, stunted growth, etc, was visible to the visitors who came to Vanni during the ceasefire period. The Sinhala State activities have reached such alarming levels again as the statistics in the Table below reveals.

Presently Vanni people are facing shortages of not only the five essential items listed in the Table below but are also facing shortages of medicine and school books.

The situation is worsening as each week passes. The District Secretariat of Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu, the United Nations World Food Programme, and the international community have taken up this issue with the Sinhala State. Indeed the efforts have been going on now several weeks without any progress as the screws are applied on the people of Vanni by denying the most basic food to even the children.

The breakdown of the population of Vanni: 200,000 (Kilinochchi), 200,000 (Mullaithivu), 30,000 (Vavuniya), and 30,000 (Mannar). Thus, the total population of Vanni is 460,000.

24 March 2008

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