Date:04/11/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/11/04/stories/2006110403001100.htm

Opinion - News Analysis

An unfolding tragedy in Sri Lanka

B. Muralidhar Reddy

Whatever its reasons for closing the A 9 highway, the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government cannot ignore its responsibilities towards the civilians trapped in the Jaffna peninsula.

PHOTO: Sriyantha Walpola

PITCHING IN: People queue up at Colombo's central post office to send food and other essentials to relatives in the Jaffna peninsula.

A HUMAN catastrophe is in the making in the Jaffna peninsula in the wake of the closure of the A 9 highway that links it to the outside world. The Sri Lankan Government shut down the highway on August 11 after battles with cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam along the Muhamalai Forward Defence Lines. More than 130 government troops were killed.

Colombo contends that the highway posed a serious threat to its security interests and that opening it now would be a costly affair. The LTTE, on its part, made re-opening of the A 9 the "core issue" at the Geneva-II talks on October 28 and 29. The talks failed and the losers are the citizens of the peninsula.

Pathetic conditions

Reports by international and national aid agencies from the peninsula, home to over 6.5 lakh people, present a pathetic picture. The entire peninsula is plagued by shortages of food, fuel, and medicines. Add to this the trauma caused by the war-like situation and you have a population under siege both from within and outside.

In its latest report from Jaffna town, the UNICEF says that apart from the sound of occasional shelling in the distance, the streets are quiet. "Because of fuel shortages there are few motorised vehicles on the road, and due to security concerns few businesses are operating at all. Many people have no work and transportation into Jaffna is currently limited to air and sea. In the town, queues form outside food shops. Although the government is continuing to bring in supplies by ship and has set up a rationing system, almost everyone talks about shortages of flour, rice, sugar and lentils. On the black market, sugar and petrol now cost about four times their normal prices."

U.N. agencies estimate that more than 50,000 people across the peninsula have been displaced; the majority have squeezed into the houses of relatives and friends. "In Jaffna town, over 1,300 people are living in school buildings on the grounds of the Our Lady of Refuge Church. The families here have clustered their few belongings — some clothes, mattresses, blankets, pots and pans — on the stone floors," says one report.

The UNICEF says that northeast of Jaffna town, in the Karaveddy area, about 7,000 people have been displaced — two thirds of them living with host families. They fled from fighting on the front line in the east. "Food is the main problem," says a house-owner. "There's not enough flour and rice, but everyone will stay here until the problem is solved." Because of the security situation, the families are afraid to return to their village. At a school rearby, functioning as a temporary accommodation centre, another 36 families are staying. They have received three rounds of rations but supplies are running low. Mothers at the centre say they cook rice porridge for breakfast. They can sometimes buy vegetables in the market, but in the evenings they skip meals so that they can feed their children.

On August 21, Human Rights Watch (HRW) appealed to the Government and the LTTE to allow humanitarian aid to reach the thousands of civilians trapped in the peninsula. It said: "Under international humanitarian law, parties to a conflict are required to provide for the basic necessities of the civilian population under their control. They are obliged to allow and assist impartial humanitarian agencies to supply food, medical supplies and other essentials to civilians at risk. The belligerent parties must consent to allowing relief operations to take place, and may not refuse such consent on arbitrary grounds."

Several other appeals have been made since then but in vain. Both the sides are not willing to relent. The Government says it was forced to close the A 9 "due to the continuous attacks on the troops with mortar and artillery" from LTTE camps across the Muhamalai checkpoint.

It adds that if the highway were to be opened now, it would enable the LTTE to force students from Jaffna University into its training camps and release them back to Jaffna as mercenaries. The free flow of traffic on the highway, the Government feels, will enable the Tigers to use civilians as human shields and attack Government forward defence lines. According to the Government, the A 9 is a lucrative source of revenue for the LTTE through levies and taxes collected on the traffic flowing along it.

It says that if the LTTE is genuinely interested in humanitarian issues, it should allow the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to ship food and other essentials to the affected areas. However, the Tigers are not ready to provide security guarantees to either the ICRC or other U.N. agencies willing to send relief via the sea route, it adds. Admitting to a shortage of goods in the peninsula, the Government says it is doing its best to augment supplies and that it is now faced with a shortage of ships. Efforts to get goods from across the Palk Straits have not produced the desired results. In the absence of security, no one is ready to take the risk.

The Government's approach towards the issue raises a number of questions. Is a democratic and sovereign Government justified in closing down a highway keeping in mind only the security aspect? What about its responsibility towards the people? Do the Government's arguments not amount to vesting powers in the Tigers on what can and cannot happen in the peninsula? The Mahinda Rajapaksa Government should immediately open the highway while ensuring that the LTTE does not exploit the situation.