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Vaharai situation on 5 December 2006

In August Sri Lankan military occupied the LTTE area of Sampur pushing the people south into the Vaharai area. The refugees who went to Vaharai joined the Vaharai residents who were devastated by the 2004 tsunami and were already living in temporary shelters. Having trapped 36,000 civilians in Vaharai, on 20 October the Sri Lankan military closed the entry points into Vaharai, denying the people even essential food. SLMM and all humanitarian agencies were restricted from going to Vaharai.

On 3 November Annaladchmi mother of five children in Vaharai said, “We ran from place to place to avoid Sri Lankan military shelling. We displaced to Paddalipuram, then Veruhal Muhaththuvaram and then to Kallady and then to Kathiraveli. People are dying here of illness. There is no medicine here. We have no food at all. Please come and see our conditions. Why doesn’t someone come and give us poison and kill us all. That will be better than this”.

Then on November 6, Sri Lankan military shelled a refugee camp in Kathiraveli in Vaharai killing 47 civilians including eight children and injuring a further 125 civilians.

Food and medicine

Humanitarian agencies after some delay attempted to take convoys of food to the people. Sri Lankan military kept turning back the food convoys meant for the people facing starvation. This occurred on several occasions. Then on 28 November, ICRC sponsored large convoy was sent. The military allowed only three lorries of food. The rest of the vehicles that were sent had only non-food stuff.

To date no further action is being taken to send humanitarian aid to the people. It appears that the humanitarian agencies have yielded to GoSL callousness in dealing with humanitarian situations and have given up further attempts.

Education

With the displacing people school children from twenty six schools also displaced. Eight schools functioned for a while catering for the students from 34 schools totaling more than 6000 students. Presently even this has ceased due to the constant shelling. Scholarship examination for the 10 year old students that was held throughout the island was not held here.

Healthcare

Vaharai hospital is not a well resourced hospital even in normal times. Serious patients are taken to Valaichenai or Batticaloa hospital. Since 20 October, patients have been denied this. Sri Lankan military has turned back Ambulances with seriously ill patients preventing them to be taken to the better resourced hospitals in GoSL area of Batticaloa. At least two patients have died due to lack of adequate care. Even babies and children injured in the military shelling have not been permitted to be taken to the better resourced hospitals. Italian Red Cross was managing the Vaharai hospital after the tsunami. An Italian doctor traveled from GoSL area everyday and treated patients at the Vaharai hospital. Since the closure of the route this doctor is not coming to the Vaharai hospital.

Shelling and offensives

Vahari has been under constant shelling from many Sri Lankan military camps and people are under constant threat of death. Sri Lankan military also launched several offensives to move into the Vaharai area causing further turmoil in the life of civilians. October 6, 13, and December 5 saw large scale offensives towards Vaharai.

06 December 2006

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