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“Condolences and expression of solidarity on behalf of the UN Secretary General”

“I am here to express condolences and solidarity to the Tamil people in their time of distress, on behalf of the UN Secretary General, who unfortunately could not personally visit these areas for reasons beyond UN’s control” said Assistant Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs And Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Ms.Margareta Wahlstrom, in a meeting with Mr.S,P.Tamilselvan, Head of the Political Division today 15 Jan 2005 at the Peace Secretariat.

She also conveyed a message from the UN Secretary General that he would definitely visit all the Tamil territories when peace dawns.

Responding to the UN team’s keen interest in familiarising with the ground situation in the context of relief arrangements, Mr.Tamilselvan presented an overview of the different phases of the rescue and relief operations and said that the second phase of relocating the displaced to safer locations with basic sanitary and drinking water facilities is on-going with the participation at the district level, of INGO,s, TRO, local NGO,s, CBO’s and the local government officials. The third phase of resettling the displaced, being the most important and involving a whole lot of planning, Mr.Tamilselvan said, needs full cooperation from the international community including the UN.

Detailing the relationship the Tamil people and the LTTE built with UN over the last quarter century, which was reinforced time and again by the UN’s presence with the people during difficult times in the NorthEast theatre of war, Mr. Tamilselvan made a fervent request to the Special representative to ensure that political considerations be not allowed to deter UN from fully participating in the rebuilding efforts of the Tamil people, making use of the local mechanisms that have been put in place with a realistic understanding of the ground situation.

When asked to comment on the relationship with Colombo vis-à-vis relief operations, Mr.Tamilselvan said that at the initial stages the government expressed its intent to co-operate with the LTTE in relief management, but these intents were not translated into actions that would demonstrate the government’s sincerity in taking the Tamil people into its fold in the humanitarian relief programme. He cited instances of inequitable distribution of international aid, discriminatory handling of the UN Secretary General’s itinerary and the induction of the military in the ‘occupied’ parts of the Tamil homeland for humanitarian delivery, a step the Tamil people detest in the background of the hostility that exists between the SL military and the Tamil people.

Not taking into account the bitter experience of the Tamil people with the occupying military relative to the genocide Tamils suffered in its hands, torture camps, disappearances and mass graves to name a few, Mr.Tamilselvan lamented that the government has acted in bad faith by bringing the same military into the humanitarian equation. He solicited the cooperation of UN in strengthening the local structures and utilising them for rehabilitation and reconstruction of the devastated NorthEast with an open and realistic approach.

Mr.Miguel Bermeo, Country Director UNDP who was associated with the special representative, said that UN with its experience in working jointly with local structures would definitely take the initiative and extend its fullest cooperation in the efforts undertaken by the LTTE. The UN team is scheduled to visit the Planning and Development Secretariat (PDS) where expatriate Tamil experts from the Diaspora are in the process of formulating plans and collating data on need assessment, the TRO HQ and Mullaittivu where they will see the devastated habitats and a welfare centre for the displaced.

15 January 2005

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