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Relief operations in the NorthEast to be handled by SL armed forces?

President Kumaratunga’s decision to deploy her armed forces in relief work and management of the welfare centres for people displaced by the Tsunami tidal wave, has given rise to serious concern among the Tamil people. Mr.S.P.Tamilselvan, Head of the LTTE political wing, when asked to comment on it during a media briefing, said that the LTTE strongly protests against this move and that this matter has been already brought to the attention of the international community.

Excerpts:

“The government is carrying on propaganda that it is sending adequate relief goods to the Tamil people in the NorthEast. For the first three days, there were no supplies received from the government side. It was only with the local resources that we managed the situation. TRO, local NGO’s, INGO’s and civilian organisations helped the people by providing them with the immediate requirements. It is only after three or may be four days that little aid started trickling in. That cannot be considered adequate in a situation wherein hundreds of thousands are displaced and fully dependant on the relief provided in the relief centres.

We have formulated an effective delivery mechanism with the inclusion of the Government Agent at the district level and this is functioning satisfactorily without any confusion in the welfare centres. Visit these task force units in every welfare centre and verify the truth or otherwise. Understandably, the government seems to be worried about the focus of international attention, after international media started highlighting the situation.

President’s order to bring relief operations under the command of the armed forces, makes the Tamil people suspicious of the government’s intentions. The Tamil people in the NorthEast do not consider the Sri Lankan military as a friendly entity in the background of atrocities committed by them during the past. How can one erase the collective Tamil memory of the mass disappearances and ending up in mass graves, of thousands of innocent Tamils, all arrested by the armed forces and later unaccounted for in the NorthEast. Vantharumoolai University complex, Kokkaddicholai, Kiran and several other locations in the East and Chemmani in Jaffna remind the Tamil people of the cruelty with which Tamil people were shepherded to death in these locations. Displaced Tamil people fear that the President is trying to push the Tamil people into another trap.

It is this mitigating background that has motivated the Tamil legislators, religious heads and civilian based organisations to protest against this move. We can understand the military being utilised for rescue operations but not for humanitarian relief, especially in the background of a hostile military personnel who do not speak the language of the displaced people. There is no paucity of civilian manpower or structures to manage humanitarian relief and we see no sense in this move of deploying a fully Sinhala military to perform relief work for displaced Tamil people”.

08 January 2005

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