2009   2008   2007   2006   2005   2004   2003

Ceasefire has not produced normalcy in people’s lives

The three year old ceasefire agreement has not made any changes to the normal life of people says the Jaffna Collective of Organizations in Humanitarian Work in a memorandum sent to the Norwegian embassy in Colombo. People continue to face difficulties with the military.

The memorandum sent to the Norwegian embassy through the Jaffna district SLMM Monitor Ronny Persson further states:

The majority of people in the Jaffna district earn their living through agriculture and fishing. People are forced away from most of the fertile land used for these purposes under the guise of High Security Zones. As a result people cannot earn their living independently. They are languishing in poverty and hunger.

The present situation of no war no peace, three years after the signing of the ceasefire agreement, is creating the fear that war might break out again.

People living in welfare centres are not provided with their basic needs. There are serious health hazards in these centres. People are falling ill all the time. The nutritional in take of children as well as the aging adults in the welfare centres are highly inadequate.

People are barred from freely visiting places of worship and places of historic importance. People are denied not only their human rights they are in fact denied their very fundamental rights.

This no war no peace situation can easily disrupt the peace efforts. Therefore the ceasefire agreement should be re-examined and re-formulated into an effective agreement that can produce positive outcome. That is the only option to pave way for peace.

The duties of the SLMM must be strengthened to create the conditions needed to uphold human rights as declared by all the UN Conventions.

The memorandum also congratulated the Norwegian facilitators for their good work and progressive actions to maintain the peace.

25 February 2005

Print this

Email this